Sisi pardoned the imprisoned Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah
Alaa Abd el-Fattah, an Egyptian-British blogger and activist, gained notoriety as a passionate voice in the Arab Spring revolution that overthrew Egypt’s long-standing ruler and has since come to represent the fight for human rights in his nation.
Less than two weeks after ordering officials to investigate his release, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi pardoned Abd el-Fattah on Monday, according to Egyptian TV outlets close to the government.
His release had already been thwarted by repeated family protests and British government intervention, including a February request from Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
In December 2021, Abd el-Fattah, 43, was sentenced to five years in jail for sharing a social media message regarding a prisoner’s death. He has been incarcerated for nearly the entire last ten years.
He began the most recent in a string of hunger strikes on September 1 in protest of his confinement, according to a social media post earlier this month by his mother, Laila Soueif.
Veteran democracy activist Abd el-Fattah was initially imprisoned before to the 2011 revolution that overthrew President Hosni Mubarak and inspired a new generation of activists in Egypt and abroad.
However, his luck soured in 2013 when Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood was overthrown by former army chief Sisi, and a crackdown ensued when hundreds of protestors were killed by security forces. Sisi became president in 2014 after being caught up together with Islamists, liberals, and leftists.
Abd el-Fattah claimed in a book of his writings that was leaked from his cell that he never would have imagined that “after a revolution that overthrew a tyrant, I’d return to his prisons.”
A POLITIC FAMILY
Abd el-Fattah was raised in an intellectually inclined, strongly politicized household. His father, Ahmed Seif, who passed away in 2014, was a lawyer and left-wing activist imprisoned under both Mubarak and his predecessor as president, Anwar Sadat. His mother, a former math professor, is also an experienced campaigner.
Abd el-Fattah gained notoriety for his blogs and social media profiles that provided a platform for the Arab Spring demonstrations in Tahrir Square in Cairo. In his capacity as a software developer, he assisted in making open-source programs more user-friendly for Arabic speakers.
In 2015, he received a five-year prison sentence for his unpermitted protests. He was reunited with his little son after being released on probation in 2019, but he had to spend every night at a police station.
Abd el-Fattah was detained once more in September 2019 and was given a five-year term in December 2021 for distributing fake news, an accusation frequently made against social media activists and government critics.
After being found guilty in a trial they claimed was unfair, his family claimed he was mistreated by jail guards, held in a cell without sunlight, and denied access to literature, news, and exercise in Cairo’s infamous Tora prison.
He told the prosecutor in November 2019 that “my conditions are but a drop in a dark sea of injustice,” which was later published in a few pieces in 2021 under the heading You Have Not Yet Been Defeated.
STRIKE OF HUNGER
On April 2, 2022, Abd el-Fattah launched a seven-month hunger strike. In November of the same year, he intensified his protests to coincide with the start of COP27, a climate summit that brought Egypt into the public eye. According to his family, he didn’t stop protesting until he passed out and nearly died.
His attorney, Khalid Ali, contended that he should be released in 2024 since his two years of pre-trial incarceration should be used to his sentence. However, prosecutors argued that he shouldn’t be freed until January 2027, according to Ali.
His mother went on a hunger strike in September 2024 as a result of this delay, and she didn’t stop until July 2025, after losing more than 35 kg and after numerous requests from her family.
According to human rights organizations, Sisi has imprisoned tens of thousands of prisoners of conscience, frequently without following the proper procedures, and subjected them to torture and other forms of abuse while they were incarcerated.
Supporters of Sisi contend that the government has upheld rights by striving to meet fundamental necessities like housing and employment, and that the suppression of dissent and liberties was necessary to keep the state stable.
Despite international criticism, including that of Abd el-Fattah’s conviction, officials maintain that inmates are held and treated in accordance with the law.
