Updated

Mohamed Fahmy, a former Al-Jazeera journalist who was released from prison in Egypt last month, has returned home to Canada.

Fahmy told The Associated Press that he arrived in Toronto Sunday. He said he'd long imagined in prison the moment he would return.

His arrival ends his nearly two-year ordeal in a case that raised questions about Egypt's commitment to free speech.

Fahmy was arrested in 2013 with two Al-Jazeera English colleagues. He was sentenced to three years in prison in a retrial this year for airing what a court described as "false news" and coverage biased in favor of the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood. The case was widely condemned. He and his Egyptian co-defendant received a presidential pardon last month. The other colleague was previously released.