Al-Sisi Vows to Free Wrongly Jailed Youths

Local Editor

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi promised Sunday to release young people who may have been wrongly jailed during Egypt's crackdown on the opposition since the toppling of his predecessor.

In an almost 40-minute televised address, al-Sisi also said the targets that his country's air force struck in neighboring Libya last week had been carefully chosen to avoid civilian casualties.

Unlike in recent speeches, al-Sisi appeared relaxed in the taped address, and gently addressed some of the criticisms of his presidency.

He said journalists had complained that there were innocent people in jail, so he told them to draw up a list.

"I told them I don't deny there might be innocent youths" in prison, al-Sisi said.
"Over the next few days the first group of our youths in detention will be released," he added.

The country has also seen a string of militant attacks that have killed scores of policemen and soldiers, and last week there were calls for al-Sisi to act after extremists in Libya beheaded 21 mostly Christian Egyptian hostages.

"I couldn't offer my condolences until your armed forces had taken revenge," he said of the early morning air strikes on February 16, hours after the "ISIL" group released gruesome footage of the beheadings.

"Thirteen targets were struck - they were all carefully checked," he said. "No one should think we attacked civilians."

He made no mention of further air strikes and did not repeat a demand for global action against the extremists in Libya, a call which had met Western opposition.

Al-Sisi also suggested that a leaked recording in which he and aides purportedly derided powerful Arab Gulf donors had been fabricated, after an opposition-linked television station aired the tape.

After the release of the recording earlier this month, al-Sisi called several Gulf Arab leaders who had donated billions of dollars to Egypt to express his support for them.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team