The president of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Mohamed bin Zayed al Nahyan, has granted a presidential pardon to the Turkish-Egyptian poet Abdul Rahman al Qaradawi, son of the late spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization that Abu Dhabi classifies as terrorist, after being sentenced to ten years in prison.
Al Qaradawi, found guilty at the end of August by a court in Abu Dhabi for undermining public security and also sentenced to pay a fine of 200,000 dirhams (46,800 euros), has received this presidential pardon, as reported by the state news agency WAM.
The poet was handed over to the UAE in January 2025 after being arrested in December 2024 in Lebanon by security forces while returning to the country after a trip to Syria. A group of independent experts from the UN and the NGO Amnesty International criticized his arrest after he "made comments critical of the Emirati, Saudi, and Egyptian authorities."
Al Qaradawi is the son of the late Egyptian Muslim cleric Yusuf al Qaradawi, a reference of the Muslim Brotherhood organization. His sister, Ola al Qaradawi, remained four years in arbitrary detention in Egypt for false accusations related to terrorism.
The Muslim Brotherhood, considered one of the main Islamic organizations worldwide, was classified in 2014 as a terrorist group by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, a decision later joined by countries such as Bahrain and Egypt.