Al-Jazeera journalists face more jail time, eye deportation

Three Al-Jazeera journalists faced Jan. 2 the prospect of at least several more weeks in prison after Egypt's top court granted them a retrial in a case that sparked international uproar.
      
Australian Peter Greste, Egyptian-Canadian Mohamed Fahmy and Egyptian Baher Mohamed were detained in December 2013 for spreading false information and accused of aiding the blacklisted Muslim Brotherhood.
      
Greste's lawyer said he had submitted a request to have his client deported from Egypt under a new law signed by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
      
A similar demand has been made to deport Fahmy to Canada, according to his fiancee Marwa Omara.
      
In the first trial, Greste and Fahmy each got seven years, and Mohamed was jailed for 10.
      
Egypt's top court on Thursday ordered a retrial, but kept the journalists in custody pending a new hearing.
      
A decree signed in November by Sisi allows him to deport foreigners sentenced to prison or on trial.
      
"We presented this week a request to the prosecutor to expel Greste in accordance with the presidential decree," Greste's lawyer Mostapha Nagi told AFP on Friday.          It is unclear how long the process will take, but Greste's family said they would apply for bail if it failed.
      
"The procedure is drawn out," Nagi said. "After the request is made at the prosecutor's office, it must be submitted to the council of ministers (cabinet) to be approved and then to the president of the republic to consider his expulsion."       

Greste's family said they had been advised that a retrial could start within 45 days, meaning the three could potentially spend at least several more weeks in custody.
      
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