Egypt's interim President Adly Mansour issued a presidential decree on Thursday cancelling Mohamed Morsi's presidential decree to pardon over 50 Islamists imprisoned on terrorism-related charges.
Morsi – ousted by the army in July of last year amid mass protests against his rule – issued six presidential decrees while in office from 2012-2013 that pardoned 52 Islamists, including nine leading members of the now outlawed Muslim Brotherhood and 18 jihadists convicted for a 1995 assassination attempt on then-president Hosni Mubarak in Addis Ababa.
The Muslim Brotherhood was designated a terrorist organisation last December by Egypt's interim authorities.
Mansour issued the decree on Thursday after it was approved by the cabinet.
A legal source in the cabinet told Reuters's Aswat Masriya that the government had found some of the pardoned Islamists to have been implicated in terrorism related crimes.
The source added that Egypt would issue arrest warrants against the nine Brotherhood figures and that the 18 jihadists would be re-arrested. The time the jihadists spent outside jail will be considered as part of their jail terms, according to the anonymous legal source.
