The detainees were incarcerated pending investigation into cases not related to violence or terrorism, El-Khouly wrote on Facebook.

Since the reactivation of the Presidential Pardon Committee in April 2022, more than 1,000 pretrial detainees have been released and 12 who were serving final sentences received presidential pardons.

Pardons and release orders included high-profile figures, such as political activists Hossam Mones, Yahia Abdel-Hady, Hisham Fouad, as well as leftist activist and lawyer Haitham Mohamadein.

The committee was originally established in 2016 to review the cases of pretrial detainees and others who meet certain criteria set by the committee.

The committee receives appeals from entities and political bodies such as the National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) and parliament’s Human Rights Committee as well as through its website.