Canadian journalist Mohamed Fahmy spent his first hours out on bail appreciating his home, having his first good night's sleep in over a year, and spending time with his fiancée.

CTV’s Daniele Hamamdjian spoke with Fahmy, 40, after his release on Friday, and reported that the Al Jazeera journalist seemed tired, but relieved.

"He said it is an unbelievable feeling not to have somebody watching you at all times, to be on your back telling you what you can and can’t do," she said. "Now he's just appreciating the fact that he can talk to people. He's got a lot on his mind. He's got a lot to say."

Fahmy and two Al Jazeera colleagues were arrested on terror charges in December 2013, and Fahmy was sentenced to seven years. Their trial and imprisonment caused international outcry against what many believed to be a political attempt to stifle journalists from the Qatar-based Al Jazeera media network.

On Sunday, the Egyptian government ordered Fahmy be retried. But as the retrial got underway, the judge ordered Fahmy and his Egyptian co-worker, Baher Mohamed, to be released on bail.

Fahmy told Hamamdjian that he was asleep in hospital when a guard woke him up in the middle of the night and ordered him to "get up and go." From there, he was transported to a local police station, where family members picked him up.

"He went home and he went from room to room, appreciating the more mundane things. He had a really good night’s sleep. He told me that he had not slept like that in a long time in a nice, comfortable bed," Hamamdjian reported.

Later, Fahmy shared a photo from a sunny patio at the Cairo Marriott, the same hotel where he was arrested more than a year ago. The image shows the journalist and his fiancée sitting in the sun and making peace signs.

"Free Sunshine @CairoMarriott Where it all started," the photo caption reads.

 

Under his bail terms, Fahmy is required to check in with Egyptian police daily until his retrial begins. He also had to post about $41,000 bail. And there is a travel ban in place, forbidding him from leaving Cairo.

It is unclear whether Fahmy might leave the country despite the ban. Fellow journalist Peter Greste, who was also arrested, was deported to Australia two weeks ago, though he did not face a retrial.

Fahmy’s lawyer, Amal Clooney, said the Canadian government could deport Fahmy, despite the pending retrial.

"There is no impediment to his immediate transfer to Canada and Prime Minister Harper should personally intervene to ensure that the promise that was made by the Egyptian government to his government, and to its citizen, is now honoured," she said in a statement.

Fahmy said he has not heard from the Prime Minister’s Office or the department of Foreign Affairs since being released on bail, though he has been in touch with the Canadian ambassador in Egypt.

"He doesn’t understand why Canada won’t follow through the way Australia did now that he gave up his Egyptian citizenship," Hamamdjian said. Fahmy once held dual Egyptian-Canadian citizenship, but officially lost the Egyptian side earlier in the month.

"Our happiness is not complete yet. We're happy that he has been released on bail, but still, we're waiting for something better. Either deportation or the conclusion of this retrial," Fahmy’s brother Adel said. "It's all in the hands now of the Canadian government convincing the Egyptian government to actually make it happen."

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Thursday that his government has been pushing for Fahmy’s release and "remain optimistic" the case will be resolved.

Despite the apparent stalls, Hamamdjian said Fahmy still "knows who put him in jail and it’s not the Canadians."

Reporting from Cairo, she said, "It doesn’t take you long to realize that this is a guy with really strong character and his morale has not been defeated at all."