Sisi greets Egyptians on Eidul Adha

CPJ sent a letter to el-Sisi talking about the “deteriorating climate” for press freedom in his country and, while praising the pardons, called for the release of all the others.

The two were pardoned and were expected to be released on Wednesday.

He lauded the efforts exerted by army and police personnel to eradicate terror in Sinai.

But our careful research shows that the number of journalists imprisoned in relation to their work in Egypt has only increased since we conducted our annual prison census in December.

Eidul Adha is celebrated by Muslims across the world to honor Ibrahim ‘s willingness to sacrifice his only son Ishmael upon God’s command.

A lawyer and Egypt’s state-run news agency say President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi has pardoned a Canadian journalist for Al-Jazeera English, Mohamed Fahmy, along with prominent human rights activists. Mr. Fahmy said, speaking of the psychological torment his return to prison caused. And he said he will continue fighting his legal battle with his former employer, Al Jazeera, which he has accused of placing the journalists in peril. Cops dropped me at CAC my old high school in my prison garb. An appeal brought about a second trial, although one of them, Australian Peter Greste, was suddenly released under a law which allows for the deportation of foreign nationals convicted of crimes.

Returning to prison was difficult, Fahmy admitted, but not quite as hard as the initial shock of being sentenced to seven years during his first trial.

Fahmy gave up his Egyptian citizenship while behind bars in the hopes that he could follow the same path, but that didn’t happen. We call on you to release all journalists from prison and ensure investigations are launched into journalist killings in recent years.

Following the verdict, Ottawa had formally asked Egypt’s president to pardon Fahmy or allow his deportation to Canada. “We urge the Egyptian authorities to quash their cases and let them too get on with their lives”, Al-Jazeera said, regretting the almost two years that Fahmy, Mohamed and Greste had to spend jailed despite being “guilty of nothing except journalism”.

Fahmy moved to Canada with his family in 1991, living in Montreal and Vancouver for years before eventually moving overseas for work, which included covering stories for The New York Times and CNN.