President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi’s pardoned former MP and human rights lawyer Zyad El-Elaimy, Tariq Al-Khouli, a member of the Presidential Pardon Committee, announced on Monday.
Al-Khouli said on Facebook: “Al-Sisi issues decree 510 of 2022 pardoning El-Elaimy, in response to the calls of political parties and forces, the Coordination Committee of Parties’ Youth and Politicians (CPYP), and the Presidential Pardon Committee.”
El-Elaimy had served as an MP representing the Egyptian Social Democratic Party in the 2012 parliament. El-Elaimy was arrested in June 2019 for spreading false news on social media, among other charges, in the case known in the media as the “Hope Cell” plot. In November, El-Elaimy received a final five-year prison sentence by the Emergency State Security Misdemeanour Court.
The pardon decision comes as a continuation of the Presidential Pardon Committee’s efforts to release political prisoners.
Total of 1,040 detainees and 12 prisoners have received presidential pardons since April 2022, lawyer and committee member Tarek El-Awady said on Thursday.
The Presidential Pardon Committee was initially formed in 2016 and reactivated by Al-Sisi in April 2022 to release prisoners and reintegrate them into society.
Over the past three months, many political prisoners have been pardoned. The committee received many requests after its reactivation regarding detainees, explaining that the committee’s role was expanded to the cases of debt default.
