According to state-linked media, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi granted prominent activist Alaa Abdel Fattah a pardon on Monday after spending the better part of the past ten years in jail.
The 43-year-old British-Egyptian national, who was pardoned alongside five others, was a key figure in Egypt’s uprising in 2011 and has since been imprisoned under each successive administration.
After sharing a Facebook post about alleged torture in Egyptian jails, Abdel Fattah received a five-year sentence in December 2021 for “spreading false news.”
According to Al-Qahera News, which is connected to Egypt’s state intelligence service, Sisi pardoned “a number of convicted persons, following the constitutional and legal procedures in this regard.”
Alaa Ahmed Seif El-Islam Abdel Fattah is included in the pardon, according to the statement.
Laila Soueif, Alaa’s mother, activist and academic, just ended a 10-month hunger strike calling for his release.
Following a partial strike in solidarity with his mother that started in March, Abdel Fattah has been on a hunger strike since September.
“My brother has been pardoned by President Sisi!” I’m currently heading to the prison with Mum andamp to check on when and where Alaa will be released. Sanaa Seif, Abdel Fattah’s sister, posted on X.
“I can’t believe we’ve got our lives back” she continued.
Shortly after the pardon, his other sister, Mona Seif, wrote, “My heart is going to stop,” Seif said.
Authorities insisted that Abdel Fattah’s sentence would come to an end in September 2024, but they disregarded his remand period.
All procedures have been finalized, according to Tarek al-Awady, a member of Egypt’s presidential pardons committee, and the prison is awaiting the implementation of the presidential decree.
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According to Awady, who spoke to AFP in response to a significant prison complex on the outskirts of Cairo, “He will be released immediately from Wadi al-Natrun Prison.”
Pardon Petition:
Following Sisi’s earlier this month’s order to examine a petition filed by the state-affiliated National Council for Human Rights to pardon a number of people, including Abdel Fattah, the pardon comes on Monday.
Abdel Fattah was removed from the country’s terrorism list after a Cairo criminal court found no evidence linking him to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood organization, according to a court decision.
Abdel Fattah’s case has been repeatedly brought up by the British government with Egyptian authorities, even in discussions with Sisi and Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
A panel of experts from the UN called for his immediate release after finding his detention to be unlawful and arbitrary in May.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk urged Egypt’s authorities to end a practice that allows for protracted arbitrary detention of government critics last month.
Prior to the end of a detainee’s remand period, the “rotation” practice frequently involves filing new charges against the detainee.
According to Turk, the practice “appears to be used to circumvent the laws governing individual liberty, due process, and equality before the law.”
Sisi’s administration has pardoned several prominent dissidents, including Mohamed al-Baqer, Abdel Fattah’s lawyer, and has released hundreds of detainees since 2022.
Despite receiving a pardon, hundreds of other politicians and activists are still imprisoned.
