(Reuters) – Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi pardoned high-profile Egyptian-British activist, Alaa Abd el-Fattah, after a lengthy imprisonment and repeated hunger strikes that prompted international pleas for his release, Al Qahera news said on Monday.
Abd el-Fattah, 43, became Egypt’s most prominent political prisoner after spending much of his adult life in and out of detention due to his activism, and a rare symbol of opposition to a far-reaching crackdown under Sisi.
Despite many local and international campaigns calling for his release, most notably during the COP27 climate summit that Egypt hosted in 2022, that possibility only became tangible when Sisi ordered the relevant authorities in September to study his possible pardon. Abd el-Fattah’s name had been removed from Egypt’s “terrorism” list months earlier.
Abd el-Fattah, who obtained British citizenship through his mother in 2021, comes from a family of well-known activists and intellectuals who have launched multiple campaigns to plead for his release. His mother, Laila Soueif, met British Prime Minister Keir Starmer earlier this year to lobby for her son.
The former blogger and former developer had been detained both before the Arab Spring uprising that toppled Egypt’s veteran autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011 and during the upheaval that followed. But it was his criticism of crackdowns on dissidents after then-army chief Sisi took power that landed him his lengthiest prison stints by far.
In 2014, Abd el-Fattah was sentenced for protesting without permission to 15 years in prison, later reduced to five years.
He was released in 2019, but remained on parole and was arrested again later that year, accused of spreading fake news after sharing a social media post about a prisoner’s death. He was later sentenced to another five-year term.
His mother Soueif’s campaign was prompted by her son’s continued detention in September last year, when she was expecting his release due to time spent in pre-trial detention. Prosecutors argued he should remain in custody until January 2027.
Soueif staged a lengthy hunger strike in Britain, ending it only after pleas from her family as her health significantly deteriorated. Starmer promised he would do everything he could to secure his release.
Abd el-Fattah has also staged multiple hunger strikes in detention to protest against his imprisonment and in solidarity with his mother, most recently in early September.
(Reporting by Cairo Newsroom; Editing by Alex Richardson)
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