Egypt on Tuesday releases 203 prisoners who received a presidential pardon after having been jailed for taking part in unauthorized protests, security and prison officials say.
President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi on Monday pardons “203 youths who had court rulings issued against them in protest cases,” his spokesman Alaa Youssef says on his official Facebook page.
A 2013 law used to jail activists for up to two years banned all but police-approved protests.
Egypt’s constitutional court ruled in December that part of the law violated the constitution which guaranteed freedom of association and the right to peaceful protest.
Sissi, a former army chief who won elections after toppling Morsi, had promised to look into pardoning prisoners at a youths’ conference in October.
The president pardoned 82 “youths” last November, including a prominent advocate of Islamic reform jailed for “insulting” religion.
He also pardoned 100 people in September 2015, including two journalists and several prominent dissidents.
— AFP
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