CAIRO – Canadian journalist Mohamed Fahmy, who was imprisoned in Egypt on widely-denounced terror charges, has been pardoned by the country’s president.
A lawyer and Egypt’s state-run news agency says President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi has pardoned Fahmy, along with prominent human rights activists.
The news agency MENA says el-Sissi has ordered those pardoned be released today.
Lawyer Khaled Abu Bakr confirmed the pardon and says his client is a “professional and innocent journalist.”
Fahmy was given a three-year sentence last month after his second trial an outcome which shocked international observers.
His ordeal began when he and two colleagues were arrested in December 2013 while working for satellite news broadcaster Al Jazeera English in Cairo.