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🇶🇦 Qatar /Crime & Justice

UAE pardons Egyptian dissident-poet facing 10 years in prison

From Al Jazeera · () English

Translated from English and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Official statement Outcome reported
  • UAE state media reported that President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan pardoned Egyptian activist and poet Abdul Rahman al-Qaradawi.
  • Al-Qaradawi had been sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined 200,000 dirhams by an Abu Dhabi court on charges related to public security.
  • It remains unclear whether he has been released, although authorities said they had taken the necessary steps to implement the pardon.

The United Arab Emirates has pardoned Egyptian opposition activist and poet Abdul Rahman al-Qaradawi days after an Abu Dhabi court sentenced him to 10 years in prison and imposed a 200,000-dirham fine, equivalent to about $55,000.

State news agency WAM reported that UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan issued the pardon. The Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeal’s Cybercrime Division sentenced al-Qaradawi on August 27 over charges of “engaging in activities that aim to stir and undermine public security.”

It remains unclear whether al-Qaradawi has been released. WAM said that “the necessary procedures have been taken to implement the presidential pardon.”

Al-Qaradawi was arrested in Lebanon in December 2024 and extradited to the UAE in January 2025 under an arrest warrant issued by the Arab Interior Ministers Council. His family had warned that Lebanon would endanger his life if it sent him to any country seeking his extradition.

He is the son of Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a prominent Sunni Muslim scholar who supported the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings and angered leaders in Egypt and several Gulf states. Rights groups and United Nations experts had called for Abdul Rahman al-Qaradawi’s release, arguing that authorities arrested him solely for exercising his right to free speech.

The necessary procedures have been taken to implement the presidential pardon.

· UAE state news agency WAMWAM reported the steps taken after the presidential pardon, without confirming whether al-Qaradawi had been released.
About this summary

Originally published by Al Jazeera in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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