United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan has pardoned Egyptian dissident, opposition activist and poet Abdul Rahman al-Qaradawi, state media reported on Friday. The executive pardon comes just days after an Abu Dhabi court sentenced him to ten years in prison.
Al-Qaradawi was convicted on August 27 by the Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeal's Cybercrime Division, which handed down a ten-year sentence and a 200,000 dirham ($55,000) fine. Authorities had charged him with engaging in activities intended to undermine public security, following his arrest in Lebanon in December 2024 under an Arab Interior Ministers Council warrant and his extradition to the UAE in January 2025.
While state news agency WAM indicated that official procedures to implement the presidential pardon are underway, it is not yet clear if al-Qaradawi has been physically released. Human rights groups and UN experts had voiced strong opposition to his detention and extradition, arguing he was targeted solely for exercising his right to free expression.
Al-Qaradawi is the son of the late Yusuf al-Qaradawi, an influential Sunni Muslim scholar whose vocal support for the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings provoked widespread opposition from Egyptian and Gulf leadership. Prior to the extradition, al-Qaradawi's family had warned Lebanese authorities that handing him over would put his life in danger.