smiling Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi appeared on state television last month to pardon more than 330 prisoners, saying it was an act of clemency ahead of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. This week, he pardoned another 712.
Many were young Egyptians jailed for anti-government protests.
But with less fanfare, at least six prominent Sisi critics have been detained in recent weeks, in what opposition activists say is an intensifying effort to crush all dissent less than three months after his landslide election victory.