CAIRO — One of the Egyptian activists behind the 2011 rebellion that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak walked free from jail Saturday following a presidential pardon after spending practically 10 years behind bars.

Authorities launched distinguished activist Ahmed Douma from a jail complicated exterior Cairo the place he was serving a 15-year sentence after being convicted of collaborating in clashes between protesters and safety forces within the Egyptian capital in December 2011, in keeping with rights lawyer Khaled Ali.

“Douma is free,” Ali wrote on Facebook. He posted a photograph displaying the activist together with former presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabahi exterior the Badr jail complicated.

The practically weeklong clashes that left some 40 folks useless erupted after largely younger activists took to the streets to protest the post-Mubarak political transition overseen by the navy. The riot concerned a fireplace that gutted elements of a library housing uncommon manuscripts and books. Other authorities buildings, together with the parliament, had been broken throughout the protests.

The clashes introduced worldwide consideration when riot police had been filmed beating, stripping and kicking feminine demonstrators in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the 2011 rebellion.

Douma was pardoned together with 4 different prisoners, in keeping with a presidential decree. The pardons, dated Saturday, had been printed in Egypt’s Official Gazette.

Activists acquired the information of Douma’s freedom with jubilation on social media, and known as for the discharge of different jailed pro-democracy activists.

“Douma has not set foot out of prison since 2013 … my heart will burst,” Mona Seif, the sister of jailed activist Alaa Abdel-Fatthah, wrote on Facebook.

Douma, 37, was first sentenced in 2015 to life in jail together with 229 different defendants who had been all tried in absentia. Douma appealed and Egypt’s highest appeals court docket ordered his retrial, finally resulting in the 15-year sentence and a effective of 6 million Egyptian kilos, about $195,000.

He was one of many faces of the 2011 pro-democracy protests that swept the Arab world’s most populous nation and ended Mubarak’s practically three-decade of autocratic rule. He was additionally a fierce critic of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, who was overthrown in 2013 amid mass protests in opposition to his one-year divisive rule.

For years, many politicians and public figures known as on President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi to pardon Douma, as a part of mounting calls to finish a yearslong crackdown on dissent. Egyptian authorities have in current months launched tons of of activists after its human rights report got here underneath worldwide scrutiny when it hosted the U.N. local weather change summit in November.

Egypt, a detailed U.S. ally, has waged a wide-scale crackdown on dissent over the previous decade, jailing hundreds of individuals. Most of these imprisoned are supporters of Morsi, the Islamist president, however the crackdown has additionally swept up distinguished secular activists.

In current months el-Sissi’s authorities has allowed some criticism of its insurance policies amid a frightening financial disaster and rising requires a political reform forward of the 2014 presidential elections.

The loosening of the federal government’s zero-tolerance coverage started following the president’s name for a nationwide dialogue in April final yr with the purpose of crafting suggestions for the nation’s future.

El-Sissi mentioned Wednesday he acquired a set of political, financial and social proposals from the dialogue which will likely be studied and applied in keeping with his authorized energy. Other proposals, he mentioned on the platform X, previously often known as Twitter, could be referred to parliament for deliberations.

The proposals, obtained by The Associated Press, embody reforming election legal guidelines and enhancing human rights, such because the creation of an anti-discrimination fee. They additionally embody different suggestions on schooling, financial system, and tourism.

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