UAE president pardons son of late Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader

UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed pardoned the son of the Muslim Brotherhood movement's late spiritual leader Friday, after he was extradited from Lebanon and sentenced to 10 years in jail.

Abdul Rahman Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, an Egyptian opposition activist and poet, was extradited in January 2025 and sentenced last week. The Muslim Brotherhood is blacklisted as a "terrorist group" in Egypt and the UAE.

"A pardon was issued today... by His Highness the President... for Abdul Rahman Yusuf Al-Qaradawi," the United Arab Emirates' official WAM news agency said in a statement.

The Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeal had sentenced Qaradawi to 10 years in prison and a fine. He was facing charges of "activities that aim to stir and undermine public security", WAM said when he arrived in the UAE.

Qaradawi, the son of Yusuf al-Qaradawi, was arrested in Lebanon in late 2024 after crossing from Syria. The arrest was linked to an Egyptian ruling sentencing him to five years' jail on charges of "opposing the state and inciting terrorism", Lebanese authorities said at the time.

Egypt and the UAE both requested his extradition from Lebanon, according to a Lebanese judicial official.

The monarchical UAE is a staunch opponent of the Muslim Brotherhood and its political Islam, which gained in influence after the 2011 Arab Spring pro-democracy protests.

Abdul Rahman al-Qaradawi was a political organiser against the government of longtime Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak, who was toppled in 2011.

His father, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, was imprisoned several times in Egypt over his links to the Muslim Brotherhood. He died in 2022 after decades in exile in Qatar.