The Personal Freedom Protection Committee formed by President Mohamed Morsy to review the cases of civilians held in military prisons since the 25 January revolution has completed its second report. It submitted suggestions for amnesty or reduction of sentences for those tried by military courts to the president on Thursday.

Committee spokesperson Mahmoud Abdel Bary said the panel used the same criteria for these suggestions as it had made in its first report. Namely, the committee checked the cases in question to see if perpetrators of similar crimes had already been pardoned during the transitional period, and verified with the Public Security Department that they were not serious or violent in nature.

Abdel Bary explained that amnesty was not suggested for violent crimes like murder, terrorism, thuggery, espionage, kidnapping, rape, armed robbery, assault or stealing public funds.

“We have examined 500 complaints and notified the National Council for Human Rights [of our suggestions],” he said.

Based on the committee’s first report, on 19 July President Morsy ordered the release of 572 detainees, drawing criticism for including certain extremist Islamists in his pardon.

Presidential spokesperson Yasser Ali on Wednesday denied the involvement of any of the released prisoners in the attack on the security checkpoint in Rafah on Sunday, which killed 16 security officers.

Edited translation from MENA