Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah freed after Sisi pardon
Sep 23, 2025 #Egypt #AlaaAbdElFattah #EgyptActivist
Prominent Egyptian-British human rights activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah has been freed after sp
Sep 23, 2025 #Egypt #AlaaAbdElFattah #EgyptActivist
Prominent Egyptian-British human rights activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah has been freed after spending most of the past 12 years in prison, his family said, a day after Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi pardoned him and five other prisoners.
“I can’t even describe what I feel,” Abd El-Fattah’s mother, Laila Soueif, said from her house in Giza early on Tuesday as she stood next to her son, surrounded by jubilant family and friends.
Considered to be among the most high-profile political prisoners in Egypt, Abd El-Fattah’s lengthy imprisonment and repeated hunger strikes had prompted international pleas for the Egyptian government to release him.
The former blogger had been detained before the Arab Spring uprising that toppled Egypt’s hardline leader, Hosni Mubarak, in 2011 and during the years of upheaval that followed.
But it was his criticism of government crackdowns on political dissidents after then-army chief el-Sisi gained power in Egypt in 2014 that landed him his lengthiest prison stints by far.
Al Jazeera’s Joel Evans reports.
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