UAE President Grants pardon to Egyptian poet Abdul Rahman Yusuf al-Qaradawi
UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan pardoned Egyptian poet and activist Abdul Rahman Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who had been sentenced to ten years in prison.
Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the president of the United Arab Emirates, granted a pardon on Friday to Abdul Rahman Yusuf al-Qaradawi, an Egyptian-Turkish poet known for his activism. Al-Qaradawi had been sentenced by the Cybercrime Circuit of the Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeal on 27 August to ten years in prison and a fine of Dh200,000. Earlier, he was arrested in Lebanon in January and extradited to the UAE after posting a video from Syria that criticized the governments of Egypt, the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
Both Egypt and the UAE requested his extradition, and Lebanese officials complied with the Emirati request on 8 January. After his arrival, al-Qaradawi was said to have been “forcibly disappeared,” held without formal indictment until the recent pardon was announced.
Why it matters
The pardon ends a high-profile legal case that strained relations between the UAE, Egypt and Lebanon.
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