Head of the complaints department at the National Council for Human Rights (NCHR), Walaa Gad Al-Karim, said that another group of detainees will be pardoned within days, under the umbrella of the presidential initiative launched on 27 April.
He added the NCHR received requests for pardon in an institutional manner, whether in the council’s branches in governorates or through its website, noting that the requests included some convicts and others under pretrial detention.
Gad Al-Karim stressed that the vast majority of requests that were registered with the Council’s complaints committee came after President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi had announced the reactivation of the Presidential Pardon Committee and the expansion of its work base in cooperation with the competent agencies and civil society organizations.
He added that the council was keen to classify the requests to ensure that candidates were not involved in crimes of murder or sabotage, and to give priority to those convicted or accused in cases related to joining groups founded in violation of the law, or publishing harmful news, violating protest laws, and other issues in which a presidential pardon can be given.
He continued, “We gave priority to young people, whether convicted or not, and more than 60% of the lists prepared by the council are less than 40 years old.”
The Council sends the lists that it receives to the Presidential Pardon Committee within the framework of coordination between the Council and the Committee, stressing that the institutional mechanisms of the Council, as the independent national institution, guarantee the credibility, comprehensiveness and impartiality of the information contained in the Council’s nominations to benefit from the presidential pardon initiative.
In a statement issued recently, the Presidential Pardon Committee revealed the imminent issuance of a list of pardons that includes dozens of cases received by the Commission during the past days.
In another context, Gad Al-Karim confirmed that the National Council for Human Rights received an invitation to develop its perceptions and proposals for managing and organizing community dialogue, where coordination is carried out in this regard through the council’s concerned committees.
