Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi issued on Wednesday a pardon for more than 330 young prisoners on the advent of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which begins on Thursday.
"I ask the interior minister that these young people be present tonight with their families for the suhur" meal that precedes Ramadan's daily fast, Sisi said at a youth conference broadcast on state television.
Some "332 prisoner youth" have benefited from the presidential pardon, state-run Akhbar al-Youm newspaper reported Wednesday.
Sisi said he approved the pardons from a list proposed by the presidential committee to pardon young prisoners.
The president has issued pardons several times a year, including on major national holidays, often releasing students and young detainees.
Also on Wednesday, an Egyptian court added the names of 241 suspected extremist militants to the country's terrorism watch list for five years. The designation bars them from travel and grants authorities the right to freeze their assets.
The Cairo Criminal Court said they are part of a group of 555 terror suspects who face military trial on charges of joining a local affiliate of the ISIS group.
The charges include killing and plotting to kill security personnel, attacking military checkpoints in northern Sinai and sabotaging a gas pipeline between Egypt and Jordan.
Only 216 of the 555 suspects are in custody, according to authorities.
