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Ahead of Eid Holiday Egypt’s Government Freed 41 Prisoners

KABUL(BNA) Egypt released more than three dozen prisoners on Sunday, a week before the end of the holy month of Ramadan, which is typically a time of amnesty, a political party and state-run media said.

Political activists and family members confirmed several high-profile detainees were freed.

The Reform and Development Party said those freed had been political prisoners being held in pre-trial detention. The English edition of the state-run newspaper Al-Ahram said 41 prisoners in all were released.

The government’s human rights body said in a statement only that there had been a release of individuals held in pre-trial detention but gave no details.

The move came a week before the Eid holiday marking the end of Ramadan. It is typically a time when prisoners are released on presidential pardons, but the number of those freed was one of the largest in recent years. Thousands of political prisoners, however, are estimated to remain inside Egypt’s jails, many without trial.

Under broad counterterrorism laws, Egypt’s state prosecutors have often used vague charges to renew 15-day pretrial detention periods for months or years, often with little evidence.

Many of the top activists involved in the 2011 uprising in Egypt are now in prison, most of them arrested under a draconian law passed in 2013 that effectively bans all street protests.

Alamyar

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