Mohamed Fahmy to be issued Canadian passport,

original passport was seized when he was arrested in 2013

Mohamed Fahmy spent more than a year in an Egyptian prison. The government of Canada says it will issue him a new passport, after his original was seized following his arrest. (CBC) 

The Canadian government says it's now prepared to issue a passport to a Canadian journalist on trial in Egypt on widely denounced terror charges.

Mohamed Fahmy spent more than a year in a Cairo prison and has been working to get a passport ever since his release on bail in February.

His original passport was seized upon his arrest in 2013, but the Canadian government had been refusing to give him a new one citing his bail conditions.

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Kevin Menard, spokesman for Citizenship and Immigration Canada, confirmed Monday to CBC News that Fahmy would be issued a passport "despite ongoing legal issues and travel restrictions."

Being out on bail without a passport has left Fahmy without any official identification, which means, among other things, that he has had difficulty with banking procedures, couldn't get married to his fiancée and had trouble moving around Cairo.

On Twitter, Fahmy said a new passport "means wedding bells for me and my fiancée!" He thanked his supporters and said "the battle for freedom continues."

With a file from CBC News