Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi has pardoned the jailed Canadian Al Jazeera journalist, Mohamed Fahmy, security sources said.
Egypt's news agency MENA says el-Sisi has ordered those pardoned be released on Wednesday.
Lawyer Khaled Abu Bakr confirmed the pardon and says his client is a "professional and innocent journalist."
Fahmy was sentenced to three years in prison last month for airing what a court described as "false news" and biased coverage.
His colleague Baher Mohammed was also sentenced in the case.
Germany news agency DPA reported that Mohammed was among about 100 prisoners included in the pardon.
El-Sisi also pardoned two prominent young female activists, Sana Seif and Yara Salam, who were jailed last year under a law that effectively bans protests without prior police approval.
Fahmy and Mohammed were arrested in late 2013 and charged with publishing "false news" and collaborating with the banned Muslim Brotherhood.
They were sentenced to seven and 10 years imprisonment, respectively, in an initial trial last year. The sentences were reduced to three years in a retrial that concluded last month.
A third journalist, Australian Peter Greste, was released and deported on el-Sisi's orders in February before the retrial started.
The pardons on Wednesday came on the eve of the Muslim holidays of Eid, when prisoner releases often take place in Muslim countries.
Fahmy, who had dropped his Egyptian citizenship to qualify for deportation, is expected to leave for Canada once he is freed.
Share
