Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has pardoned prominent British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abdel Fattah after six years in prison, state media and his family said on Monday.
Abdel Fattah, 43, was among six people whose sentences were commuted following a request by Egypt’s National Council for Human Rights, according to Al-Qahera News. “My heart will explode,” his sister Mona Seif wrote on X. Another sister, Sanaa Seif, said: “President Sisi has pardoned my brother!”
His lawyer, Khaled Ali, said Abdel Fattah would be released from Wadi al-Natrun prison once the pardon is published in the official gazette.
A leading figure of Egypt’s 2011 uprising, Abdel Fattah was arrested in 2019 and later convicted of “spreading false news” over a Facebook post about a prisoner’s death under torture. His family said he should have been freed in September 2024, but authorities did not count two years of pre-trial detention as time served.
Abdel Fattah obtained British citizenship in 2021, though Egypt did not permit a consular visit. He undertook several hunger strikes in custody, including during the 2022 UN climate summit, drawing international attention to his case.
The rights council called the pardons “a step that underscores a growing commitment to reinforcing the principles of swift justice and upholding fundamental rights and freedoms.” In May, a UN working group said Abdel Fattah’s detention was arbitrary and his trial unfair; Egypt said due process was observed.