EGYPT’s President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi has pardoned the prominent British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abdel Fattah, who has been imprisoned for six years, state media and his family say.
Abdel Fattah was one of six people whose sentences were commuted following a request from the National Council for Human Rights, according to Al-Qahera News. His sister Mona Seif wrote on X: “My heart will explode.”
The 43-year-old blogger and pro-democracy activist is one of Egypt’s best known political prisoners.
He was arrested in 2019 during a crackdown on dissent and sentenced to five years in prison in 2021 after being convicted of “spreading false news” for sharing a post about a prisoner dying after torture.
His family said he should have been released in September 2024. However, Egyptian authorities refused to count the two years he spent in pre-trial detention as time served.
Abdel Fattah’s lawyer, Khaled Ali, confirmed in a Facebook post on Monday afternoon that he had been pardoned and that he would be released from Wadi al-Natrun prison, north-west of Cairo, once the pardon was published in the official gazette.
Abdel Fattah’s other sister Sanaa Seif later wrote on X: “President Sisi has pardoned my brother!”
“Mum & I are heading to the prison now to inquire from where Alaa will be released and when… OMG I can’t believe we get our lives back!”
The National Council for Human Rights welcomed the pardons, saying the decision was “a step that underscores a growing commitment to reinforcing the principles of swift justice and upholding fundamental rights and freedoms”.
US-based campaign group Human Rights Watch said it hoped Abdel Fattah’s pardon act would “act as a watershed moment and provide an opportunity for Sisi’s government to end the wrongful detention of thousands of peaceful critics”.
Two weeks ago, Sisi ordered the authorities to study the NCHR’s petitions for the release of Abdel Fattah and six others, which the institution said it had submitted “in light of the humanitarian and health conditions experienced by [their] families”.
Abdel Fattah’s 68-year-old mother, Leila Soueif, who is also a British citizen, ended a nine-month-long hunger strike in July after receiving assurances from the UK government that it was doing everything it could to secure his release.
She lost more than 40% of her original body weight and was twice admitted to hospital in London during the strike, which saw her consume only tea, coffee and rehydration salts.
Abdel Fattah has also staged a number of hunger strikes himself. One in 2022, as Egypt hosted the UN climate conference, led to international pressure for his release and an improvement in his conditions in jail.
The activist first rose to prominence during the 2011 uprising in Egypt that forced long-time President Hosni Mubarak to resign.
He has spent most of his time in prison since 2014, the year after Sisi led the military’s overthrow of Egypt’s first democratically elected president, Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Morsi.
Sisi has overseen what human rights groups say is an unprecedented crackdown on dissent that has led to the detention of tens of thousands of people.