Egypt's Sisi pardons jailed activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah

Egyptian President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi has pardoned prominent Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah after spending most of the past decade in prison.

The 43-year-old is one of the most well-known figures of the 2011 Arab Spring uprising and was jailed following the Sisi's seizure of power in a 2013 military coup.

"The Egyptian president issues a pardon for the remainder of the prison sentence for a number of convicted persons, after taking the constitutional and legal procedures in this regard. The pardon includes... Alaa Ahmed Seif El-Islam Abd el-Fattah," said Al-Qahera News, which is linked to Egypt's intelligence service.

His lawyer Khaled Ali confirmed the news on Facebook.

Abd El-Fattah was sentenced to 15 years in jail in 2014 for protesting without permission, which was later reduced to five years.

In 2019 he was released, but remained on parole and was rearrested later that year, accused of spreading fake news after commenting on a social media post.

Abd El-Fattah was later sentenced to another five-year term.

His sister Mona Seif, who along with her family had campaigned for the UK government to put pressure on Sisi, posted on X following the announcement of his release: "My heart is going to stop."

'Alaa's release is symbolic to everyone - it represents hope and a breather amid escalating repression inside Egypt and transnationally'

- Samar Elhusseiny, campaigner

His other sister Sanaa said she and their mother were heading to the prison to inquire about the timetable for his release. 

"Sorry I can't take calls right now but I'll keep you posted the moment we hear something. Omg I can't believe we get our lives back!" she wrote on X.

Abd El-Fattah fell ill earlier this year after starting a hunger strike in protest at his imprisonment and conditions.

He had been subsisting on herbal tea, black coffee and rehydration salts when his mother, Laila Soueif, had also been hospitalised after launching her own hunger strike the previous year.

Samar Elhusseiny, a human rights activist in exile, told Middle East Eye that the news of his pardon was welcome, and hoped it might open doors for other high profile cases like jailed campaigner Hoda Abdelmonem and others.

"I burst into tears," she said.

"Alaa's release is symbolic to everyone - it represents hope and a breather amid escalating repression inside Egypt and transnationally."

A decade of repression

There had been mounting pressure internationally over Abd El-Fattah's continuing imprisonment, which came as part of a decade-long crackdown on dissent by Sisi's government following his takeover of power.

The crackdown primarily focused on supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Brotherhood-backed Prime Minister Mohamed Morsi, though secular and leftist activists like Abd El-Fattah were also targeted for their pro-democracy campaigning.

In May, a UN panel of independent human rights experts declared Abd El-Fattah's detention illegal under international law and demanded his immediate release.

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In a landmark ruling, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD) concluded that Abd El-Fattah was being held arbitrarily by the Egyptian authorities.

The UNWGAD ruling came days after a second call between UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Sisi, in which Starmer “pressed for the urgent release of British national Alaa Abd El-Fattah so that he can be reunited with his family”.  

Starmer had previously spoken to Sisi on 28 February.

On 21 May, Starmer said at Prime Minister's Questions, in response to a question by John McDonnell MP, that he had given Abd El-Fattah's mother his "commitment to do everything I possibly can. I have had a number of contacts myself but I’m not going to stop doing everything within my power to secure release.”

MEE contacted the UK Foreign Office for comment.