Mohamed Fahmy, left, and Baher Mohamed, Al Jazeera journalists, at a court hearing in Cairo in June. The imprisoned journalists were pardoned on Wednesday by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Credit Amr Nabil/Associated Press

President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi pardoned two imprisoned journalists from the Al Jazeera English news network on Wednesday, as well as dozens of other political prisoners, effectively voiding a raft of widely criticized convictions handed down by Egypt’s courts.

The pardoning of the journalists, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed, and of prominent leftist activists arrested at protests, provided their families with a measure of relief and stanched a source of international criticism of Mr. Sisi’s government a day before he was scheduled to fly to New York for a United Nations General Assembly gathering.

The pardons appeared to be part of a customary prisoner release on the eve of the Eid al-Adha holiday. In a statement, Mr. Sisi’s office said 100 people had been pardoned for humanitarian and health reasons, and “in line with the president’s initiative last December to release detained youth.”

Amid the celebrations, Mr. Sisi’s willingness to discard the convictions with the stroke of a pen revived questions about why the defendants had been charged at all. The pardons also raised new doubts about the ability of Egypt’s judiciary to fairly settle the cases of thousands of other people also imprisoned on political charges. Since Mr. Sisi led the military takeover of the government more than two years ago, the authorities have systematically rounded up perceived opponents, including Islamists and secular-leaning activists, filling Egypt’s jails.

“While these pardons come as a great relief, it is ludicrous that some of these people were ever behind bars in the first place,” Amnesty International said in a statement after the decree.
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