Alaa Abd El-Fattah, a prominent Egyptian-British human rights activist, was released after spending the majority of his first 12 years behind bars, his family reported the following day. Abdel Fattah el-Sisi pardoned him and five other prisoners.
As she sat next to her son, surrounded by jubilant family and friends, Abd El-Fattah’s mother, Laila Soueif, said, “I can’t even describe what I feel,” she said from her home in Giza on Tuesday morning.
“We’re happy, of course,” the statement read. However, she said, “our greatest joy will be when there are no political prisoners in Egypt.”
Abd El-Fattah was regarded as one of Egypt’s most well-known political prisoners due to his lengthy imprisonment and frequent hunger strikes.
Prior to the uprising that led to the ouster of Egypt’s hardline ruler Hosni Mubarak during the Arab Spring and the years that followed, the former blogger had been detained.
However, his criticism of the government’s crackdowns on political dissidents after then-army chief el-Sisi’s rule in Egypt in 2014 earned him one of his longest prison sentences by far.
He was given a 15-year prison sentence in 2014 for demonstrating against orders. He was briefly released in 2019, but he continued to serve time for parole, and he was detained once more in the same year and given a five-year prison sentence.
After his release, friends, family, and supporters shared images of the activist with smiling Abd El-Fattah embracing his mother and other family members on social media.
His sister, Mona Seif, expressed her brother’s acceptance on social media: “We can take a breath and give happiness a chance to fill our hearts… and keep going. The world is full of nightmares, injustice, violence, and many things that break the heart.. but we can take a breath and give happiness a chance.”
She wrote in a separate post, “Oh Lord, the same joy for the families of all the detainees.”
What would happen and how much beauty and joy would flood the world with in a single moment, if that were to occur?
A truly generous day
Alas, the picture is free. twitter.com/nmg4oROSTi
Abd El-Fattah’s protracted detention had become a sign of Egypt’s deterioration of democracy.
Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom, Yvette Cooper, stated, “I sincerely welcome the news that Alaa Abd El-Fattah has received a Presidential pardon.
President Sisi deserves my gratitude for making this choice. Alaa’s family will soon be reunited with him when he returns to the UK.
Abd El-Fattah, who became a citizen of the UK through his mother in 2021, was a member of a cult of prominent activists and intellectuals who had spearheaded numerous efforts to free him.
His mother arranged for her son’s release after meeting with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer earlier this year.
Soueif launched a lengthy hunger strike in the UK in September 2024, intensifying her campaign as her son’s release was delayed due to his pre-trial detention, but it was only stopped after her family appealed for help because her health had drastically deteriorated.
Abd El-Fattah has also taken to his own hunger strikes in detention, most recently in early September, in solidarity with his mother, and promised to do everything in his power to get him released.
But his most notable hunger strike occurred in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, in 2022, during the annual UN climate summit. Abd El-Fattah lost consciousness and was revived with fluids before the strike ended.
Source: Aljazeera
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