Daijiworld Media Network - Cairo
Cairo, Sep 24: Prominent Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah walked free on Tuesday after spending most of the last 12 years behind bars, a day after President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi granted him and five others a presidential pardon, his family confirmed.
“I can’t even describe what I feel,” said his mother, Laila Soueif, at their Giza home as relatives and friends celebrated. “We’re happy, of course. But our greatest joy will come when there are no political prisoners in Egypt.”
Abd El-Fattah, long considered a symbol of Egypt’s shrinking democratic space, was jailed multiple times for criticising crackdowns on dissent. First detained before the 2011 Arab Spring uprising, he faced his longest prison term after el-Sisi came to power in 2014, receiving a 15-year sentence for protesting without permission and later a five-year term in 2019.
His repeated hunger strikes drew global attention and calls for his release from rights groups and foreign governments. UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper welcomed the pardon, saying Britain looked forward to Abd El-Fattah’s reunion with his family. He obtained UK citizenship in 2021 through his mother and is expected to travel to Britain soon.
Abd El-Fattah’s sister, Mona Seif, expressed relief on social media, writing, “The world is full of nightmares, injustice, violence… but we can take a breath and give happiness a chance to fill our hearts.”
Egypt’s National Council for Human Rights said his release signalled a stronger focus on swift justice by the authorities.