Journalist Mohamed Fahmy describes 'horrific' time behind bars in new book

As a journalist with dual Canadian and Egyptian citizenship, Mohamed Fahmy says he was shocked to be thrown in a cell in one of the "most notorious prisons in the Middle East."

Fahmy was a cell neighbour of members of al-Qaeda and ISIS — "Really mean people that I could never imagine would ever be living under the same roof with me."

Fahmy was wrongfully incarcerated in December 2013 after being seized by Egyptian forces from a Marriott Hotel, where he had been working as a bureau chief for Al-Jazeera's English news channel.

He was charged with being a pro-Muslim Brotherhood terrorist who fabricated news and undermined state security. He was freed in 2015.

Fahmy is in Winnipeg Wednesday to promote his new book, The Marriott Cell: An Epic Journey from Cairo's Scorpion Prison to Freedom. It details his time behind bars, how he survived and the importance of journalism dedicated to holding power to account.

CBC Information Radio host Marcy Markusa spoke with Fahmy recently about his book and his time in prison.

The following exchange has been edited for clarity and length

How long did you think you would be behind bars, and what was your cell like?

I thought it wouldn't last more than a couple of hours, a couple days. And then it became very obvious that this was going to become a long journey in a clogged Egyptian judicial system through their dungeon-like prisons.

My cell; I didn't know what time of day it was, no sunlight, no sleeping on the floor. I was in solitary confinement for a month and a half with no access to proper food, a toilet that didn't flush. It was horrific and I only survived because I was able to maintain a balance between my spiritual being, my mental being and of course, with the support of my family and the impeccable job Canadian media did.

You share an experience early in the book where prisoners start yelling out their identities to each other to get to know who is in adjacent cells. You begin to hear names of notorious men. What was it like for you to recognize who you were among?

I was shocked. There were some people there who were members of the presidential team of the Muslim Brotherhood who at that point had just recently been running the country. There were also extremists, jihadists. One man was with Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan and was boasting about how he blew up the Buddha statues in Afghanistan and how he was hoping to blow up the pyramids in Egypt.

It was also an opportunity to interview these people and get exclusive access to their mindset and how they think and why they want to kill journalists. I took a lot of notes and smuggled letters and notes out. I document a lot of these interviews in the book.

You detail this one point in the book where you were transported for interrogation and you're chained to other men. How did you stay safe?

The interviews I did, we were luckily separated by metal bars. In that interrogation transfer truck, that was hard, because they were singing jihadi songs about suicide bombs and killing police officers. I wasn't singing but I said, "Hey! I am doing jihad with my pen!" They were interested because they were sure I was going to tell their story.

But at one point the police got into a fight with the jihadist prisoners that turned bloody and I couldn't do anything about it because I was handcuffed to one of them. It was really one of the worst days of my incarceration.

Were there moments when you found yourself connecting with, even liking some of these men?

During the family visits you see their children and their wives and after a while, they start sharing food with you. It becomes a unified force: the prisoners versus the jailer, and you're trying to conspire against the prison to get a pen, or an extra loaf of bread or newspapers.

All of us protested together and kept banging on the cells for an hour until finally the prison decided to finally give us the beds we wanted and newspapers. That was a victory for our wing — the terrorism wing, where I was living! It was surreal in every sense of the word.

What's your message to your wife? This book is somewhat of a love story as well.

When we met, my wife had no Twitter account, had nothing to do with politics. During the ordeal she became a journalist, an NGO worker, an ambassador. She had to quit her job. Her life just went upside down.

People always used to ask if I had a hero and I'd say "No." But now she is my hero and if it wasn't for her and my lawyer, I wouldn't be here today.

During your trial, your lawyer said "Is broadcasting an opinion that opposes the government a crime or is it just journalism?" Donald Trump has been very critical of media coverage and now he's poised to take over the White House. How important do you think your story will be in the backdrop of a President Trump world?

We argued throughout the trial that a journalist is a messenger. In the case of Mr. Trump, I was very disappointed that he won. His rhetoric is extremely unacceptable and I hope he was just using it to win votes.

But I am still very worried of his treatment of journalists when he calls journalists sleazy publicly or attacks the New York Times or CNN journalists, where I worked for three years. It's just unacceptable and I hope he does not inspire any more leaders across the world, because unfortunately press freedom is already facing a huge, unprecedented threat where journalists and human rights defenders are being targeted and killed.

Fahmy will be talking about his new book at McNally Robinson Wednesday at 7 p.m. CT.