Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has issued a presidential pardon for prominent opposition figure Ahmed Douma, who has been imprisoned since 2013. Douma was sentenced in 2019 to 15 years in prison after being convicted of "gathering and attacking government buildings."
Egyptian lawyer and member of the Presidential Pardon Committee, Tarek Al Awady, wrote on his Facebook account on Saturday that the "President of the Republic, using his constitutional powers, issued Presidential Decree No. 348 for the year 2023, granting amnesty to some of those who were sentenced with final judgments, including Ahmed Saad Douma."
Prominent human rights lawyer Khaled Ali also posted a short video on social media from outside Badr city prison (east of Cairo) on Saturday, saying, "At Badr prison, waiting for Douma's release."
Commenting on the news, Hossam Bahgat, the director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, told Agence France-Presse (AFP), "This is very welcome news because Douma... is among the most difficult cases of political activists and human rights defenders disliked by the regime."