UPDATED: President Sisi pardons researcher Patrick George Zaki and lawyer Mohamed El-Baqer

Alhadath – Cairo

President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi issued a presidential pardon on Wednesday for researcher Patrick George Zaki and rights lawyer Mohamed El-Baqer among a number of prisoners, announced the Presidential Pardon Committee.

On Tuesday, Mansoura High Emergency State Security Court sentenced Patrick George Zaki, a well-known human rights researcher, to three years in prison on charges of spreading false news inside and outside the country.

Meanwhile, El-Baqer, a prominent human rights lawyer, has been serving a four-year sentence after he was convicted in December 2021, also by an emergency state security court, of joining a terrorist group and spreading false news inside and outside the country.

Zaki was held under pretrial detention in February 2020 but was released in December 2021.

El-Baqer was held under pretrial detention in September 2019 before he was sentenced in he stood trial and received a final verdict.

The verdicts of high emergency state security courts cannot be appealed.

However, the president has the prerogative to not ratify these verdicts or grant pardons to those convicted by these emergency courts, per the country’s constitution.