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Sisi pardons 3,100 prisoners to celebrate liberation of Sinai

April 25, 2019 at 11:51 am

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi in Cairo, Egypt on 5 June 2018 [Egyptian President Office/Apaimages]

More than 3,000 Egyptian prisoners were released from prison after President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi pardoned them, RT Arabic reported yesterday.

The Egyptian president pardoned the 3,094 prisoners who were sentenced and spent part of their terms in prison, to mark the Sinai Liberation Day.

Prisons departments formed committees across Egypt to examine how many prisoners met the conditions of the presidential pardon. The committee found 2,968 prisoners were eligible for release.

A further 126 were included in the pardon on conditional release.

Since becoming president of the Republic following a military coup in 2013, Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi has ruled Egypt with an iron fist. The government has launched a crackdown on anyone suspected of opposing Al-Sisi. President Mohamad Morsi, the country’s first democratically elected leader, remains imprisoned and facing a retrial having been sentenced to death.

READ: Egypt holds referendum that could keep Sisi in power until 2030

Torture and extrajudicial killings are also common in Egypt, with prisoners relating how officers threatened to rape their wives and sisters if they did not confess to committing the crimes of which they were accused.

Amnesty International has described the situation in Egypt as the worst human rights crisis in the country in decades, with the state systematically using arbitrary arrests and enforced disappearances to silence any dissent and create an atmosphere of fear.