The Detained Youth Committee has reportedly omitted 20% of the prisoners whose names were submitted for consideration in the second presidential pardon, state-run newspaper Al-Ahram reported on Sunday.
Committee member and member of parliament Karim Al-Saqa said in a televised interview that priority is being given to detainees with illnesses, students, and women. Committee members had previously said presidential pardons would focus on these three groups; however, according to local media reports only 23 people who matched these categories were released during the first pardon.
The committee started working on the second list in mid-November, after receiving reports from the National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) and several political parties.
President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi had pardoned 82 prisoners from dozens of governorates in the first list. The list also included two journalists and other prominent prisoners, such as TV presenter Islam Al-Beheiry and doctor Ahmed Saeed.
The list was proposed by the Detained Youth Committee, which was established by the presidency during the National Youth Conference in October to review the status of detainees, especially young students. Veteran politician Osama Al-Ghazali Harb had called for the release of young detainees during the conference, and was put in charge of the committee.
