Breaking: Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has pardoned two Al Jazeera journalists who, just weeks ago, were sentenced to three years in prison on charges of aiding a terrorist organization.
AFP reports Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed are among 100 prisoners being released. Their colleague, Australian Peter Greste, who was released from jail and deported in February, was not on the list. The three were first detained in late 2013.
No reason was given for President Sisi’s decision, but it comes ahead of his trip to New York to address the UN General Assembly.
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Upon their sentence on August 29, Al Jazeera acting director general Mostefa Souag called the verdict “yet another deliberate attack on press freedom.”