British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah has been pardoned by Egypt's President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi after six years in prison, according to his lawyer. The 43-year-old campaigner gained British citizenship through his mother and became a symbol of Egypt's pro-democracy movement.
Abd el-Fattah rose to prominence during the 2011 Cairo protests that led to the downfall of former president Hosni Mubarak. He was convicted in 2021 for sharing a Facebook post about human rights abuses in Egyptian prisons, receiving a five-year sentence.
Only BBC reports that the pardon came following a request from Egypt's National Council for Human Rights and affected six people in total. Egyptian authorities had refused to count more than two years of pre-trial detention toward his sentence, extending his imprisonment beyond the expected September 2024 release date.
British citizenship campaign
His mother Laila Soueif, a prominent activist, conducted multiple hunger strikes and met with Prime Minister Keir Starmer to campaign for her son's release. Abd el-Fattah obtained British citizenship through his mother in 2021, making this a dual-national case that attracted significant diplomatic attention.
The activist also undertook his own hunger strikes to highlight his case. High-profile local and international campaigns called for his release, with Egypt removing him from its "terrorism" list last year.
International pressure
The COP27 climate summit held in Egypt in 2022 became a major platform for the international campaign demanding Abd el-Fattah's freedom. The case highlighted Egypt's broader crackdown on dissent under President al-Sisi's rule.
The pardon represents a significant diplomatic development in relations between Egypt and the UK. Abd el-Fattah's family are prominent intellectuals and activists in Egypt's human rights movement.
Sources used: "Sky News", "BBC", "Independent" Note: This article has been edited with the help of Artificial Intelligence.
