Egypt orders release of 46 detainees in latest pardons

CAIRO (AP) — Egyptian authorities have announced the release of 46 detainees, including a prominent human rights lawyer, in its latest series of pardons. A member of Egypt’s presidential pardon committee confirmed the government’s order before several photographs of the freed lawyer, Haitham Mohamadein, were shared online. Egypt has pardoned dozens of detainees in recent months as its human rights record comes under international scrutiny ahead of it hosting the U.N. climate change summit in November. Egypt is among the world’s worst jailers of journalists. Many of the major activists involved in Egypt’s 2011 popular uprising remain in prison, most of them arrested under a 2013 draconian law that effectively bans all street protests.