Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi pardoned 3477 prisoners before the Eid al-Fitr holiday, many of them imprisoned for debt, the interior ministry said.
Sisi issues pardons several times a year, including on major national holidays, often releasing students and young protesters.
Since coming to power in 2014, Sisi presided over a crackdown on Islamist opponents and liberal activist rights groups say is the worst period of political repression in modern Egyptian history.
Sisi said on his official Twitter account he ordered the interior ministry to release all those jailed for debt, a total of 690, according to an interior ministry statement.
It was not clear what crimes the remaining 2,787 prisoners were convicted of and no list of names was immediately available.
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