Egypt's new president last night attempted to silence critics of his first 100 days in office and to distance himself from his military predecessors by announcing a pardon for political prisoners arrested since last year's revolution.
President Mohammed Morsi has come under fire for a speech last weekend in which he claimed successes for his first 100 days in office which many deemed unrealistic.
Now in a bid to reassert his popular and revolutionary credentials he has announced he will free all those arrested or convicted for crimes "in support of the revolution" between the fall of President Hosni Mubarak in February last year and his own election this June.
He did not give precise details, other than to say it would not apply to anyone convicted of murder. Human rights activists claim thousands of people, possibly as many as 5,000, are still in jail, many having been convicted by military courts, after being detained in protests against the interim military government that took over from Mr Mubarak.
As well as his record on tackling issues from the economy to Cairo's traffic, Mr Morsi has been criticised for taking over all authority from the interim government, meaning he is technically more powerful than Mr Mubarak was.
He has also said he is considering introducing a new emergency law, even though the Mubarak's regime's 30-year state of emergency was one of the main grievances of the protesters who overthrew it last year.