Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi issued a pardon on Monday for prominent activist Alaa Abdel Fattah, who has been jailed for the better part of the past decade, state-linked media reported.
The 43-year-old British-Egyptian national, who was pardoned alongside five others, was a leading figure in Egypt’s 2011 uprising and was jailed under each administration since.
Following his latest arrest in 2019, Abdel Fattah was sentenced in December 2021 to five years in prison for “spreading false news” after sharing a Facebook post about alleged torture in Egyptian jails. Sisi pardoned “a number of convicted persons, after taking the constitutional and legal procedures in this regard”, said Al-Qahera News, which is linked to Egypt’s state intelligence service.
“The pardon includes… Alaa Ahmed Seif El-Islam Abdel Fattah,” it added. Alaa’s mother, activist and academic Laila Soueif, recently ended a 10-month hunger strike demanding his release.