Egypt Pardons Alaa Abd El Fattah, Its Most Prominent Political Prisoner

Middle East|Egypt Pardons Most Prominent Political Prisoner

After years of struggle, waiting, dashed hopes, diplomatic pressure and repeated hunger strikes, Egypt’s president pardoned the country’s best-known political prisoner, Alaa Abd El Fattah, on Monday, according to a presidential statement.

Imprisoned for most of the last 12 years for his dissident activities, Mr. Abd El Fattah, 43, had expected to be released last September, at the completion of the five-year sentence he received in 2019. But the Egyptian authorities kept him locked up, saying his two years of pretrial detention did not count toward his sentence.

It was not immediately clear whether he had been released from prison yet.

“President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has pardoned the remaining sentences of several prisoners,” the presidential statement said, listing the names of six detainees, among them Mr. Abd El Fattah.

“This decision reflects the state’s commitment to strengthening human rights initiatives, promoting tolerance, and offering those pardoned the opportunity to begin a new life.”

The fear that Mr. Abd El Fattah would be held indefinitely led him and his mother, Laila Soueif, to go on hunger strike, landing her in the hospital repeatedly.

Their wasting bodies piled pressure on Britain, where mother and son hold dual citizenship, to push Egypt for his freedom. British officials in Cairo and London had lobbied for his release for years, and Prime Minister Keir Starmer called President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt about the case earlier this year.

Yet Mr. el-Sisi had long ignored calls by world leaders, Nobel laureates, celebrities and activists to release Mr. Abd El Fattah, leading many supporters to despair that he ever would.

“President Sisi has pardoned my brother!” his sister, Sanaa Seif, said in a social media post. “Omg I can’t believe we get our lives back!”

Ms. Seif said the pardon had come as a surprise to her family.

“We learned about this just like everyone else, from the news,” she said. “We have no idea where he is going to be released from, and are going to the prison to ask.”

Mr. Abd El Fattah is the most famous activist of his generation.

A software developer and intellectual whose biting, visionary commentary on his country’s 2011 Arab Spring revolution made him the foremost chronicler of its hopes and failures, he and his family threw themselves into building a democratic Egypt only to see their aspirations crushed two years later in a military takeover led by Mr. el-Sisi.

“Which is easier,” he asked in a March 2014 essay. “To avoid challenging authority and to assume its good intention? Or to persuade society that it’s absurd to try to live with an authority that allows itself murder and torture and detentions?”

Since Mr. el-Sisi took power in 2013, Egyptian authorities have imprisoned tens of thousands of perceived political opponents. Most languish in jail for months or years on end without trial or formal sentences. Rather than release them after they spend the maximum time in pretrial detention allowed by law, prosecutors often charge them with new crimes and extend their detention.

Whether because of global pressure or other factors, Mr. Abd El Fattah’s case has run a different course.

He was removed from Egypt’s terrorist list over the summer. Earlier this month, Mr. el-Sisi formally ordered the authorities to consider a petition for his release.

There is no guarantee that Mr. Abd El Fattah will remain free. He was previously released after a five-year prison term in 2019, only to be arrested again six months later.

And several other prominent dissidents whom the authorities have allowed out of detention in recent years later faced new charges.