Egypt Pardons More than 5K Prisoners on Eid al-Fitr Occasion

Egyptian authorities announced the release of 5532 prisoners on Sunday under a presidential pardon on the occasion of the Eid al-Fitr holiday.

In a statement, the Interior Ministry said that decision came upon president Abdel Fattah el Sisi decrees no. 231 and 232 for the year 2020.

The Egyptian ministry added that prison departments held committee meetings to examine the files of inmates nationwide, to determine who deserves amnesty and an early release.

"The committees decided to release 5532 inmates after examining their files," the statement added.

On May 4, 2020, a number of prisoners were released as per another presidential decree on the occasion of Sinai Liberation Day on April 25.

It is worth mentioning that Egypt’s Dar Al-Iftaa announced on Friday that Sunday, May 24, 2020 will mark the first day of Eid Al Fitr in Egypt.

“Saturday will be the last day of the holy month of Ramadan, thus Sunday will mark the first day of Eid Al Fitr,” Egypt’s Mufti Shawki Allam announced in a statement.

Sunday also marks the first day of Eid Al Fitr in other states such as Saudi Arabia, UAE, Jordan, Kuwait  Iraq.

Egypt had tightened the lockdown restrictions during Eid Al Fitr due to the coronavirus outbreak as the Egyptian Prime Minister Dr. Mustafa Madbouli announced on Sunday, 17 May new stricter coronavirus measures.

In a televised speech, Madbouli said that a nationwide curfew will begin at 5 pm instead of the current 9 pm till 6 am starting from Sunday through Friday in a step aims to curb the outbreak of the deadly virus.

He noted that all shops, malls, beaches and parks will be completely shut, in addition to halting public transport during the 6-day holiday.

The Premier stated that the curfew hours will start at 8 pm for 2-weeks afterwards, noting that life will gradually return to normal with certain precautionary measures from second half of June.

He added that the world started to move toward plans to “co-exist” with the coronavirus, so the Egyptian state and people have to work on restoring normal life while taking into consideration some preventive measures.

With regard Thanaweya Amma (third year of secondary school), Madbouli announced that the exams will  start on June 21st.