Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has pardoned detained human rights researcher Patrick Zaki and lawyer Mohamed el-Baqer, <a href="https://news.ad-astra.icu/egyptian-researcher-patrick-zaki-and-lawyer-granted-pardon-by-el-sisi.html” title=”Egyptian researcher Patrick Zaki and lawyer granted pardon by El-Sisi”>state-run media has reported.
The pardon came on Wednesday, a day after Zaki had been sentenced to three years in prison after being found guilty of spreading “false news”.
Zaki, 32, was jailed over an article recounting the discrimination he and other members of Egypt’s Coptic Christian minority say they have suffered.
The government-run al-Ahram newspaper said el-Sisi also granted a presidential pardon to el-Baqer, who is the lawyer for Alaa Abd el-Fattah – Egypt’s best-known political prisoner. Al-Baqer was detained in 2019, and in 2021 he was sentenced to four years in prison on charges of disseminating false news, misuse of social media, and joining a “terrorist” group.
Prisoners who are pardoned in Egypt usually walk free within days.
“We welcome the news of their pardon and call for the immediate release of thousands still detained in Egypt on political grounds,” prominent rights activist Hossam Bahgat wrote on Twitter. Bahgat is the executive director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, which represented Zaki in court.
Link from www.aljazeera.com