The brothers of imprisoned Australian journalist Peter Greste have called the order of a retrial in Egypt a "positive step".
Speaking in their hometown of Brisbane, Andrew and Michael Greste said the family's hopes were pinned on a presidential decree made in November that created a deportation option for bringing the 49-year-old home.
Andrew Greste said: "We view this decision as a positive step in the legal process and one step closer to justice being served. The decision is also an acknowledgement that the first court trial was flawed and produced a number of procedural errors.
"We believe that there is now a window of opportunity for the Egyptian President to exercise his presidential power under the decree.
"We've got to be hopeful. It's a new decree and there is very little understood about it, there's very little regulation, there is no precedent, we are in uncharted waters there."
The retrial decision was made by an appeals court after a hearing lasting a few minutes.
However, there were mixed emotions among relatives at Egypt's Court of Cassation after the trio were denied bail.
Canadian-Egyptian Mohamed Fahmy, Australian Peter Greste and Egyptian Baher Mohamed have been held since December 2013 on terror-related charges in a case that has provoked an international outcry and widespread calls for their freedom.
The arrests followed the ousting of Egypt's Islamist president Mohamed Morsi and their original trial was dismissed as a sham by rights groups.
Fahmy and Greste each received a seven-year prison sentence, while Mohamed got 10 years.
Egyptian authorities had accused Qatar-based Al Jazeera of acting as a mouthpiece for the Muslim Brotherhood, which had swept to power after the country's 2011 revolution.
Marwa Omara, the fiancee of Mohamed Fahmy, told Sky News the families were disappointed the journalists had not been released before the retrial gets under way.
She said her fiance was in poor health with hepatitis B, but is in "high spirits".
"He's just a journalist who was doing his job," she said.
"They were accused of being members of the Muslim Brotherhood, fabricating news and harming national security, and calling for a civil war in Egypt.
"All these accusations are faulty and there is no evidence whatsoever - we don't understand why they are in prison."
Defence lawyer Negad al Borai said after Thursday morning's hearing that he hoped for a "happy end" to the case. There has been speculation that President Abdel Fattah al Sisi could pardon or deport the men.
Sky News' Middle East Correspondent Sherine Tadros said a date for the retrial has not been set, but that lawyers could make a further request for bail on its first day.
She said: "There's another opportunity that they could be freed and wouldn't have to spend the next trial behind bars, but because these are very serious charges - belonging to a terrorist organisation is essentially what they're charged with - it's unlikely that this would be granted."
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