Mohamed Fahmy could be freed from prison today after renouncing his Egyptian citizenship. Three Al Jazeera journalists, Fahmy, Peter Greste and Baher Mohamed were detained in Cairo and sentenced to between seven and 10 years in December 2013 for supporting a “terrorist organization,” a reference to the now banned Muslim Brotherhood. The announcement comes days after the sudden release of Greste who is now en route to his home country of Australia after over 400 days in captivity.

The trials of the three journalists concluded in June 2014 and drew criticism from human rights groups, free press advocates, and journalists. In Fahmy’s trial, the prosecution rested on a series of videos and recordings lifted from the belongings of all three journalists. The Guardian, the only newspaper to attend each of the trial’s 13 sessions, reported that the footage had no relevance to either Egypt or Al Jazeera. Included in the collection of evidence attempting to defame Fahmy and his co-defendants was a recording from the Australian singer Gotye, a BBC documentary about Somalia, footage of galloping horses by Sky News Arabia, and a program about sheep farming.

The “comically flawed” trial lead an appeals judge to send the case to retrial, but the judge refused to release the men on bail. In response, Fahmy, who holds dual citizenship with Canada and Egypt and Greste, an Australian citizen, then publicly pursued deportation through a recent presidential decree allowing foreign detainees to continue their sentences in their home countries. Egyptian president Abdel Fatah al-Sisi issued the decree in November, which many understood to be in direct response to specifically Greste’s case. Bahar Mohamed holds only an Egyptian passport and is not covered under the decree and Fahmy was treated as Egyptian by the courts.

A relative of Fahmy told Agence France-Presse that he was told to give up his nationality or his freedom. A message from Fahmy disseminated through Twitter gave voice to his dilemma: “Why should a human being drop his citizenship to be freed from prison for a crime he didn’t commit?”