The pardon decision came in response to calls by political parties and forces, the Coordination Committee of Parties’ Youth and Politicians (CPYP) and the Presidential Pardon Committee, El-Khouly said.

Presiden Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi also pardoned Amr Ragab Qotb and Mohamed Aziz El-Gohary according to the pardon decree that was published in the official gazette on Monday. 

In November, El-Eleimy received a final five-year prison sentence by the emergency state security misdemeanour court for spreading false news on social media, among other charges, in the case known in the media as the “Hope Cell” plot.

El-Eleimy served as an MP representing the Egyptian Social Democratic Party in the 2012 Parliament.

Earlier this year, the Presidential Pardon Committee pardoned political activist and Karama Party member Hossam Mones and journalist Hisham Fouad, who were convicted in the same case, in April and July respectively.

Mones and Fouad had been sentenced to four years in prison on the same charges in November.

The 13 defendants in the case were arrested in June 2019 for what the interior ministry described at the time as a hostile plot to “disrupt the national economy” and were placed on country’s terrorist list for five years in April 2020.

The prosecution charged the defendants with crimes including cooperating with a group established in violation of the law and disseminating false news and information about the political and economic conditions in the country in order to destabilise public peace and undermine trust in state institutions.

In a statement, the pardon committee thanked El-Sisi for “fulfilling his promise” to pardon El-Eleimy, saying they look forward to further presidential pardons “to prove to everyone that Egypt is a homeland that accommodates everyone."

A total of 1,040 pretrial detainees have been released and 12 prisoners have received presidential pardons since President El-Sisi reactivated the Presidential Pardon Committee and called for a national dialogue with the opposition and other political forces in April. committee member Tarek El-Awady said on Thursday.

The pardon committee, which was originally formed in 2016, is an advisory body to the president which receives suggestions for names to be considered for pardon. T

The final decision on eligibility for pardon rests with the president.