UAE President grants pardon to poet sentenced to ten years after Lebanon extradition

Abdulrahman Youssef al-Qaradawi, an Egyptian-Turkish poet, received a presidential pardon from Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan after being sentenced to ten years in prison. He had been detained in Lebanon in December 2024 after posting a video that criticized the governments of the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Following his extradition to the UAE in January 2025, he faced charges of “engaging in activities that aim to stir and undermine public security.”

Rights organisations and United Nations experts called for his release, citing concerns over freedom of expression. The pardon was announced on Friday, a week after the sentence was handed down. His father, the late Youssef al-Qaradawi, was a prominent Muslim cleric linked to the Muslim Brotherhood and the 2011 Arab Spring.