A member of Egypt’s Presidential Pardon Committee, Mohamad Abdelaziz, posted the announcement on Facebook.
“President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ... uses his constitutional powers and issues a presidential decree granting pardons to a group of people against whom judicial sentences have been passed, including Patrick Zaki,” the post read.
“[The pardon comes] in response to the appeal from the Council of Secretaries of National Dialogue and political forces.”
On Tuesday a Mansoura court sentenced Zaki to three years in prison for allegedly spreading fake news.
Following the ruling, the 22-year-old researcher faced a further 14 months in jail having already spent 22 months in pre-trial detention following his arrest at Cairo airport February 2020.
Zaki was returning to Egypt from Italy to visit family and was arrested on separate charges of subversive propaganda connected to some Facebook posts.
He was released from custody in December 2021 but subsequently put on trial for allegedly spreading fake news in relation to three articles on Coptic Christians in Egypt, and he was banned from leaving the country.
Earlier this month, Zaki obtained a master’s degree in women’s and gender studies from Bologna University with the maximum grade of 110 with distinction.
He defended his thesis via video link after the authorities in his homeland refused permission for him to present it in person.
ANSA
