King Salman of Saudi Arabia has pardoned 76 Egyptian prisoners detained in the kingdom, according to a Thursday statement by Egypt's foreign ministry.

In a statement issued on Thursday, Ambassador Amr Mowad, the deputy foreign minister for expatriate affairs, said that the Saudi king had issued a decree pardoning a number of prisoners in the kingdom, including a number of Egyptians, to mark his succession to the throne in January.

The statement did not give details of the date of the decree, or the names of those pardoned.

The Saudi pardon does not include Egyptian human rights lawyer Ahmed El-Gizawy, his relates said. El-Gizawy was arrested in 2012 in Saudi Arabia and was convicted of smuggling drugs into the kingdom, and sentenced to five years in jail and a public flogging in 2013.

The case caused a public storm in Egypt as rights activists accused the Saudi authorities of targeting El-Gizawy because of his public criticisms of human rights violations in the Gulf kingdom.

Also on Friday, Shahenda El-Gizawy, the sister of Ahmed El-Gizawy stated on her Twitter account her brother, who is still imprisoned, was transferred to hospital for surgery.

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