Jailed British activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah pardoned by Egypt president’s office

Egyptian authorities on Monday announced the presidential pardon of prominent British activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah, who has been in prison for almost all of the past 12 years.

A statement from the president’s office said that another five prisoners were also pardoned. It was not immediately clear when they will walk free.

The British-Egyptian dual national’s lawyer Khaled Ali told the Associated Press on Monday that Mr Abd El-Fattah is expected to be released from Wadi Natron Prison, just north of Cairo, immediately after the state’s decision is published in the country’s official gazette, which he expects is likely within the next two days.

Laila Soueif, Mr Abd El-Fattah’s mother, said she was heading to the prison where her son is held. “I won’t rest until he is out,” she said.

Mr Abd El-Fattah was a leading voice in the country’s 2011 Arab Spring uprising and has gone on multiple hunger strikes behind bars.

His ordeal became emblematic of the fraying of Egypt’s democracy.

He took part in the 2011 uprising that toppled autocratic former president Hosni Mubarak, and later was active in protests against human rights abuses as well as military trials of civilians.

He was first sent to prison in 2014 for taking part in an unauthorised protest and allegedly assaulting a police officer. He was released in early 2019.

He was arrested again in September 2019 during a security crackdown that followed rare anti-government protests in Egypt, and after more than two years in pre-trial detention an emergency security court sentenced him to five years for spreading false news.

When his release date came up in September 2024, authorities refused to count the more than two years he spent in pre-trial detention and ordered him held until January 3, 2027.

“My heart will explode,” his sister Mona Seif posted on Facebook, relieved about the news of his pardon.

The pardon by Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi came after an independent rights group submitted a petition to the president’s office earlier this month.

The National Council for Human Rights, acting on behalf of the families of the prisoners, urged Mr el-Sisi to consider Mr Abd El-Fattah’s situation and that of the six others on “health and humanitarian grounds”.

Earlier this month Mr el-Sisi’s office said he had ordered relevant authorities to look into it.

Mr Abd El-Fattah’s family waged a campaign to pressure the UK to help secure his freedom and take him in.

When Egypt failed to release Mr Abd El-Fattah last September, his mother began her own hunger strike in Britain, but became seriously ill and ended the strike in July.

An influential blogger, Mr Abd El-Fattah hails from a family of political activists, lawyers and writers.

His late father was one of Egypt’s most tireless rights lawyers and his sisters are also political activists. His aunt is the award-winning novelist Ahdaf Soueif.

Mr Abd El-Fattah’s most dramatic hunger strike came in 2022, as Egypt hosted an annual UN climate summit in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

That strike ended when he lost consciousness and was revived with fluids.

The leaders of Britain, France and Germany said they sought Mr Abd El-Fattah’s release in private talks with Mr el-Sisi during the climate conference.

Still, European countries, which have a growing interest in Egypt’s gas reserves, and the US, which sees Mr el-Sisi as a key source of stability, were reluctant to openly clash with Egypt.

The circumstances surrounding the latest appeal for his release were different from previous ones, Mr Ali told The Associated Press earlier this month, in part because of his mother’s hunger strike, which added a “humane” element to the petition.

“This is really promising, we hope these authorities follow through with urgency and that Alaa will be reunited with us soon,” his sister, Sanaa Souief, said on X earlier this month.

Mr Ali said earlier this month that a court order had removed his client’s name from the government’s “terrorism list”, which would allow him to travel out of the country once he is freed.

It was not immediately known if he would leave Egypt, but Mr Ali said that his client has a desire to keep his Egyptian citizenship and live in Egypt.

“I hope this pardon creates an opportunity to find a serious solution for prolonged pre-trial detentions and sentences against politicians and activists just because they had an opinion,” Mr Ali said at the time.