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1st LD: Egypt's Sisi pardons 100 prisoners, including Al Jazeera journalists

Xinhua, September 23, 2015 Adjust font size:

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi on Wednesday pardoned 100 prisoners, including Al Jazeera journalists Canadian Mohamed Fahmy and Egyptian Baher Mohamed, state-media reported.

On Aug. 29, Fahmy and Mohamed along with Australian Peter Greste were sentenced to three years in prison over charges of aiding the blacklisted Muslim Brotherhood group and spreading false news.

Greste was tried in absentia as he was deported to Australia earlier this year.

Three other Egyptians were also sentenced to three years in jail for helping the journalists of the Doha-based Al Jazeera.

Official MENA news agency reported that a third inmate in the same case was pardoned, but it was unclear if it was the Australian journalist, or one of the three other Egyptian inmates.

In February, Fahmy renounced his Egyptian citizenship and kept his Canadian one, paving the way for his deportation.

The journalists had been arrested in a security raid in a Cairo hotel room where they were operating in December 2013. They were then accused of spreading false news and lies harmful of the national interests.

Wednesday's pardon also included some prominent youth activists who were charged with violating the country's 2013 controversial anti-protest law that requires a police permit before staging rallies, state-run Ahram Online reported.

Other prisoners will be released given their health condition or for humanitarian reasons, sources at the presidency said Wednesday, MENA reported.

The young inmates will be released as part of an initiative declared by Sisi during his meeting with young reporters in December to set free groups of detained youth, the sources said.

The pardon came as as a goodwill gesture ahead of Muslims' Eid al-Adha, or Feast of Sacrifice which falls Thursday.

It has been a tradition during national and religious occasions that the presidents of Egypt pardon prisoners, mainly those who served more than half of their terms as well as patients and the elderly. Endit