A presidential committee formed to examine cases of young Egyptians detained since the events that followed January 25 revolution is near conclusion. A new list of pardoned youth is to be announced, informed sources told Al-Masry Al-Youm.
The committee is to deliver the second list to the presidency by the middle of this week; and the pardoned detainees will be released the by the end of the week, the sources said.
The Detained Youth Committee will also continue studying the cases that are pending trial, in preparation for a presidential pardon.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi earlier issued a decision to form the committee, during the first-ever Sharm el-Sheikh National Youth Conference that was held in October.
Sisi issued a presidential pardon on the 17th of last month to exonerate 82 prisoners, including TV show host Islam al-Beheiry who was serving a sentence of one year in prison, handed to him in December 2015 on charges of "contempt of religion".
The sources told Al-Masry Al-Youm on Friday that the new list has a much higher number of detainees than those included in the first batch to receive the presidential pardon in November, which were 82 detainees.
About the process of the pardon itself, the sources said that the committee addresses the presidency directly, with the latter undertaking the necessary procedures, then declaring the names of the pardoned detainees.
"There are a huge number of petitions submitted to us, and we review all the documents; this of course takes time, because examining lists (of detainees) is not easy," the head of the committee Osama al-Ghazaly Harb told Al-Masry Al-Youm.
The committee is willing to accomplish its mission to the fullest, so as to achieve the objective which it was created for; that's what makes reaching an accurate list extremely difficult, Harb explained.
"We receive requests by the thousands, from different institutions; and I'd like to reassure the families who have sent us the petitions that we are sparing no effort to review all of the documents and to considered them very well," he added.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
