Egypt's Sisi pardons 82 'youths', overlooks best-known activists

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has pardoned 82 "youths", including a prominent advocate of Islamic reform, however, the best-known activists have been left off the list.

Sisi on Thursday pardoned the 82 detainees, most of whom were convicted of violating protest laws, after he promised to look into pardoning prisoners at a youths' conference last month.

The former army chief, who won elections after toppling his Islamist predecessor Mohammad Morsi in 2013, failed to include the most influential detained activists in the pardon such as Alaa Abdel Fattah, Ahmad Doma and Shawkan.

"The list was made under the close watch of security services, which has been very frustrating," a source close to the Egyptian National Council for Human Rights, which has been coordinating a committee set up by Sisi, told The New Arab.

The names of those pardoned by Sisi were compiled by a committee he set up to examine the cases of young detainees who had not been involved in violence.

"They have not paid attention to our recommendation to release all journalists. They have also only allowed detainees with no prior files with security services to be pardoned, meaning they are not Islamists or revolutionaries," the source added, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The pardoned include Islam al-Behairy, a television show host and Islamic reform advocate sentenced to a year in prison for criticising canonical religious works.

Behairy had used his television program to air calls for the removal of what he described as "extremist material" in texts of religious interpretation and heritage.

Authorities have detained thousands of people in the last three years, mostly Islamists but also prominent secular activists.

The government has not said how many detainees are being held, but rights groups estimate the number at between 20,000 and 40,000.

The government maintains that there are no political detainees in Egypt, arguing that everyone in detention is being accorded due process.

Rights activists say a large number of detainees are being held, sometimes for as long as two years, without charge or trial.

A source in the Ministry of Justice told The New Arab that a secret committee composed of Sisi, public prosecutors, members of parliament and judges has been set up to discuss a possible comprehensive amnesty law that would pardon further detainees.