Egyptian activists Alaa Abdel Fattah, Ahmed Douma, Alimi on list of pardoned prisoners

CAIRO – 16 July 2022: Egyptian imprisoned activists Alaa Abdel-Fattah, Khaled Lutfi, Ahmed Douma, Ziad Al-Alimi, some broadcasters on the Qatari-owned Al-Jazeera network, youth from the April 6 Movement and the accused in the Hope Cell are on the list of presidentially pardoned inmates, announced member of the Presidential Pardon Committee Tareq El Awady

He added in comments to the talk show “Hadith Al Kahira,” El Awady added that the competent authorities reviewed many of the names and did not receive a refusal regarding specific names.

Today, six inmates were released as per a presidential pardon on Saturday, announced lawmaker Mohamed Abdel Aziz, member of the Presidential Pardon Committee.

The released inmates are:

1. Mohab Yousry El-Ibrashi

2. Bassam Jalal Al-Sayed

3. Amr Imam

4. Abdel Nasser Salama

5. Yahya Zakaria Othman Negm

6. Mumtaz Fathi Abdel Wahab Qassem

On  July 9, 2022, committees assigned to review files of prisoners nationwide announced that 1,270 prisoners deserve to be pardoned as they meet the conditions set for pardoning inmates.

This came under President Abdel Fattah El Sisi's decree no 297 of 2022 on pardoning some prisoners on Eidul Adha.

This falls within the framework of the Interior Ministry's keenness on applying modern punitive policies and qualifying inmates to re-join society.

A batch of imprisoned debtors in Egypt, comprising 75 men and women, will leave prison on July 14, Tarek El-Khouli, a member of the Presidential Pardon Committee member said.

Late in June, Egyptian Presidential Pardon Committee member Tarek El-Awadi said a new list including a batch of prisoners of conscience will be released within days on the occasion of the 30 June Revolution.

The Presidential Pardon Committee, formed in 2016 and reactivated by President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in April, aims to release young prisoners of conscience and reintegrate them into society.

Committee Member Tarek El-Khouli previously explained to Egypt Today the criteria that the recently revived committee’s work is based on to prepare pardon lists.

“Our work while preparing the pardon lists and choosing names conform to two criteria; first, they must not be part of a terrorist group and second, they must not have engaged in violence and bloodshed crimes,” Khouli said.

He added that all those who do meet these criteria have the chance of being included in the pardon lists.

Khouli affirmed that the committee receives pardon requests via many avenues, including through the National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) and the human rights committees of the House of Representatives and Senate.

In addition, the committee receives pardon requests through the National Youth Conference website, Khouli added.