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Why jailed founders of Egyptian youth movement have not been pardoned

The youth pardon committee set up by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has not recommended the release of three young political activists who participated in Egypt’s revolutions.
Political activists Ahmed Maher (R), Ahmed Douma (C) and Mohamed Adel, founder of 6 April movement, look on from behind bars in Abdeen court in Cairo, December 22, 2013. Three leading Egyptian activists were sentenced to three years in prison each on Sunday in a case brought over their role in recent protests, escalating a crackdown on dissent by the army-backed government. Maher, Douma and Adel are symbols of the protest movement that ignited the historic 2011 uprising against President Hosni Mubarak. Each
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On Nov. 14, Egypt’s Detained Youth Committee issued a list of detainees to be pardoned, but the list did not contain the names of a group of youths who are well known in the political and revolutionary scene, namely Alaa Abdel Fattah, Ahmed Douma and Ahmed Maher, founders of the April 6 Youth Movement. Their exclusion from the list did not take into account the call of the Egyptian National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) to release them.

On Oct. 27 and as part of the recommendations of a youth conference held in Sharm el-Sheikh, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi issued a decision to form the presidential Detained Youth Committee, under the direct supervision of the presidency and whose mission would be to conduct a thorough examination of the young people in custody.

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