Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has pardoned thousands of prisoners, including journalist Hossam Moniss, imprisoned for "
spreading false news
", authorities announced on Wednesday (April 27th).
In total, the Egyptian president pardoned 3,273 detainees on the occasion of the anniversary of the "
liberation of Sinai
", a peninsula occupied from 1967 to April 25, 1982 by Israel, the Interior Ministry said in a press release.
To discover
LIVE - War in Ukraine: follow minute by minute the evolution of the conflict
YOUR COMMUNE - The results of the second round of the presidential election in your area
Read alsoEgypt: Sissi, the Jordanian king and the crown prince of Abu Dhabi discuss Jerusalem
Hossam Moniss, a figure of the Egyptian left, was sentenced to four years in prison in November for "
spreading false news
", a charge regularly used against opponents in Egypt, according to human rights NGOs.
The journalist was arrested in 2019 along with other opponents who were trying to form an alliance under the name of the "
Coalition of Hope
" to run for the 2020 legislative elections.
A special court sentenced him, along with five other opponents - including former MP Ziad el-Elaimi, a figure in the popular uprising of 2011 who overthrew President Hosni Mubarak - to terms ranging from three to five years imprisonment.
"
Congratulations, Hossam Moniss has been pardoned
," tweeted lawyer Tarek al-Awady.
41 political prisoners released
This announcement comes three days after the release of 41 political prisoners in preventive detention, including several figures of the 2011 revolt. Other presidential pardons, traditionally granted to hundreds of prisoners for the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, could also be announced in early May.
Since coming to power in 2013, Abdel Fattah al-Sissi has been accused by human rights organizations of having gradually muzzled the population.
Egypt has more than 60,000 prisoners of conscience, including "
peaceful activists, human rights defenders, lawyers, academics and journalists detained solely for exercising their rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and of association
," according to Amnesty International.
In his “
national strategy for human rights
” presented a year ago, Hossam Sissi insists on the fact that education, health or electricity are more necessary rights than, for example, that of assembly, which is almost prohibited. in the country.
