Egypt Pardons Prominent Activist Alaa Abdel Fattah
President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi has pardoned prominent British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abdel Fattah, who had been imprisoned for six years.
Abdel Fattah was expected to be released from prison after his sentence ended in September 2024, but he remained in custody in Egypt. He was arrested in 2019 during a crackdown on dissent and sentenced to five years in 2021 after being convicted of “spreading false news” for sharing a post about a prisoner who died after torture.
The pardon came just days after al-Sisi asked officials to review a petition from the National Council for Human Rights seeking clemency for several detainees, including Abdel Fattah. A Cairo criminal court had also recently removed him from the country’s terrorism list, saying there was no evidence tying him to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.
