SYDNEY/CAIRO: Two of three Al-Jazeera journalists jailed in Egypt have applied to be deported under a new law after the country’s highest court ordered their retrial but did not free them as their families had hoped.

Australian Peter Greste, Canadian-Egyptian Mohamed Fahmy and Egyptian Baher Mohamed were sentenced in June to seven to 10 years in jail for spreading lies to help a “terrorist organization” — a reference to Egypt’s outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.

Egypt’s High Court ordered their retrial on Thursday citing procedural flaws in the original trial.

The reporters’ imprisonment is a thorny issue for Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sissi.

Their families say they are paying the price for a deterioration in ties between Qatar, which owns Al-Jazeera, and Egypt following the Brotherhood’s expulsion from power.

The November law allows for foreign convicts or suspects to be transferred to their country to serve their sentences or to be tried there. It was not clear how it might be applied in the Al-Jazeera case since it has yet to be used and there are no precedents.

Greste’s lawyer Mostafa Nagy told Reuters in Cairo he had presented the prosecution with a deportation request last month but received no response. He planned to make a new request in light of Thursday’s ruling and hoped it would be accepted.

Greste’s brother, Andrew, echoed those hopes. “Now that Peter is essentially an innocent man, he’s not convicted any more, it does allow for some room to move and for him (El-Sissi) to step in ... and deport him,” he told reporters in Brisbane.

Fahmy’s brother Adel also told Reuters in Cairo that his lawyers had formally asked Egypt’s presidency and prosecution that he be pardoned or deported.

Despite widespread criticism of the case, El-Sissi has resisted intervening directly, citing judicial independence.

Defense lawyers say the retrial could begin within a month. The judge has the power to release all three on bail at the first hearing.

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said: “There are more avenues...for Peter Greste, his family and his legal team to pursue.”