MADRID, 25 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The former Egyptian opposition deputy Ziad el Eleimy has been pardoned this Monday by order of President Abdelfatá al Sisi, after human rights groups have raised their concerns before the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) that will take place in the country next month.
This was announced in a message on the social network Twitter by the member of the Presidential Pardon Committee and also a deputy Tarek el Jouli, assuring that the decision had been made “in response to calls from parties, political forces and the coordination of politicians from youth”.
El Eleimy was serving a five-year prison sentence after a trial court charged him with misdemeanor state security offenses for allegedly spreading false news on social media, among other charges, according to the Egyptian daily ‘Al Ahram. ‘.
Along with 12 other activists, the opponent was arrested in June 2019 accused of “disturbing the national economy”, which is why in April 2020 the total number of defendants was included in the country’s list of terrorists.
The Egyptian Prosecutor’s Office charged the 13 activists with crimes such as cooperating with an established group in violation of the law and spreading false news and information about the country’s political and economic conditions to destabilize public peace and undermine confidence in state institutions.
El Eleimy served as a deputy representing Egypt’s Social Democratic Party in Parliament and was one of the participants in the coalition of youth movements that in 2011 led the protests against then-President Hosni Mubarak, who had been in power for 30 years, and all this in the context of the Arab Spring.
However, the Pardons Committee has thanked Al Sisi for “keeping his promise” to pardon El Eleimy and has assured that they expect more presidential pardons “to show everyone that Egypt is a homeland that accommodates everyone,” according to the aforementioned daily.
On the eve of the celebration of the COP27 that will take place in the Egyptian city of Sharm el Sheikh, located on the Red Sea, between November 6 and 28 of this year, activists from around the world have called on Egypt to release thousands of political prisoners, as Human Rights organizations have requested for years.
