In brief
Egypt's President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi has granted a pardon to prominent British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah, who has been imprisoned for six years on charges of spreading false news. The decision comes after a request from the National Council for Human Rights and has been confirmed by Abd El-Fattah's lawyer. Despite previous circumstances preventing his release, this act reflects a potential shift in Egypt's approach to political dissenters.
Egypt's president has pardoned prominent British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah, who has been imprisoned for six years, state media and his lawyer say.
Abdel Fattah is one of six people whose sentences President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi commuted following a request from the National Council for Human Rights, according to Al-Qahera News. His lawyer confirmed the news and wrote on X: Praise be to God.
The 43-year-old blogger and pro-democracy activist is one of Egypt's best known political prisoners.
He was arrested in 2019, months after finishing a previous five-year sentence, and convicted in 2021 of spreading false news for sharing a Facebook post about torture in Egypt.
He should have been released in September 2024. However, Egyptian authorities refused to count the more than two years he spent in pre-trial detention towards his time served.
He and his mother, Laila Soueif, staged hunger strikes to protest against his imprisonment.
