Egypt released human rights researcher Patrick Zaki and lawyer Mohamed El-Baqer today, Thursday, following a presidential pardon issued by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Zaki had spent 22 months in pretrial detention before being sentenced to three years in prison on Tuesday for spreading false news based on an article he wrote about the conditions of Christians in Egypt, with his presidential pardon coming on Wednesday.
Zaki told Reuters that he plans to travel to Italy tomorrow, Friday, where he was studying before being arrested during a visit to Egypt in 2020. El-Baqer was arrested in 2019 while attending an investigative session related to his client, Alaa Abdel Fattah, one of Egypt's prominent activists. El-Baqer returned home today, Thursday, according to his family and lawyers on social media.
Alaa Abdel Fattah remains in prison along with many other prisoners who were detained in an ongoing crackdown on dissent that has lasted for over a decade. U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller confirmed that the United States welcomes the release of Egyptian human rights defenders Patrick Zaki and Mohamed El-Baqer. Miller added on Twitter, "The United States urges Egypt to release all unjustly detained political prisoners."
