Egypt pardons jailed activists, including two prominent rights defenders, official reports say

By SAMY MAGDY
Associated Press

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s state-run media are saying that President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi has pardoned a group of prisoners, including two prominent rights activists. The MENA news agency said on Wednesday that among those pardoned is rights activist Patrick George Zaki, who was a post-graduate student in Italy and was sentenced to three years in prison on Tuesday over an opinion article he wrote in 2019. Zaki’s case has also echoed in Italy, where many were reminded of the tragic fate of Italian student Giulio Regeni who was abducted and killed in Cairo in 2016. Also pardoned was Mohammed el-Baker, a rights lawyer, who was arrested in September 2019 and sentenced to four years in prison late in 2021.