CAIRO: An Egyptian human rights activist who served as an MP has been pardoned by the president and released from a five-year sentence for plotting to disrupt the economy.
Tariq Al-Khouli, a member of the Presidential Pardon Committee, said that Abdel Fattah El-Sisi had responded to growing calls to free Zyad El-Elaimy.
The Egyptian Social Democratic Party, of which El-Elaimy is a founder, said it greatly appreciated the news. Farid Zahran, its chairman, said El-Elaimy was greeted by friends, family and members of the pardon committee after his release.
According to a decree published in the official gazette, El-Sisi also freed two others along with El-Elaimy, naming them as Omar Ragab Qotb and Mohamed Abdel-Aziz Khalifa.
El-Elaimy was part of the Revolutionary Youth Coalition, which was formed at Cairo’s Tahrir Square during the 2011 revolution. He served as an MP the following year.
He was arrested in 2019 along with 12 others and accused of a plot to disrupt the economy and spread false news on social media in what was dubbed the “Hope Cell” case. He was sentenced to five years in prison in November 2021.
El-Elaimy’s release comes as the government prepares to enter a national dialogue with political parties on economic, social and political issues.
The pardon committee, initially formed in 2016, has released around 1,000 pretrial detainees since its reactivation by the president in April.
Parties and organizations including the National Council for Human Rights and parliament’s Human Rights Committee have submitted names to be considered for pardon.