British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abdel Fattah, a major figure of Egypt’s 2011 uprising, was granted a presidential pardon on Monday, after spending years behind bars.
The 43-year-old computer programmer and activist has long been one of Egypt’s most recognisable dissidents.
Over the past two decades, he has been imprisoned under every administration — from ousted president Hosni Mubarak to the current president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
Abdel Fattah was first detained in 2006 under Mubarak’s rule, then under Field Marshal Mohamed Tantawi’s interim military council following the 2011 uprising.
He was also held under late Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, and later under Sisi, a former army chief who took power in 2013.
“Alaa was known for his commitment against military trials of civilians,” Egyptian-Palestinian activist Ramy Shaath, himself a former political prisoner, told AFP.
Since Sisi came to power “and the consolidation of military power, this opposition became unacceptable”.
Abdel Fattah was most recently handed a five-year prison sentence for “spreading false news” after sharing a Facebook post alleging torture in an Egyptian prison.
– ‘Symbol’ –
Born in 1981, Abdel Fattah is the son of the late human rights lawyer Ahmed Seif al-Din and academic Laila Soueif, whose sister is celebrated novelist Ahdaf Soueif.
His family has been vocal about the violations he and other detainees have faced and Amnesty International chief Agnes Callamard has called Abdel Fattah “the symbol of the arbitrariness of the regime”.
Laila Soueif recently ended a 10-month hunger strike demanding his release.
Abdel Fattah himself has been on hunger strike since the start of September, following a partial strike that began in March in solidarity with his mother.
His sisters Sanaa and Mona Seif have for more than a decade rallied international support for Abdel Fattah’s release.
“I can’t believe we get our lives back!” Sanaa Seif — who was herself jailed twice under Sisi — said on Monday, shortly after the pardon.
She most recently served an 18-month prison sentence that ended in December 2021, also for “spreading false news”.
Their father, who spent his last years in courtrooms trying to free his children and other activists, died in 2014 with both children incarcerated.
In 2011, while Abdel Fattah was detained for “inciting violence”, his son Khaled was born — named after Khaled Said, whose death by police brutality in 2010 helped spark the uprising.
Khaled has been “on the autism spectrum and became non-verbal” after witnessing his father’s latest arrest from his home, Mona Seif wrote in 2022.
Abdel Fattah published in 2021 a book titled “You Have Not Yet Been Defeated”, comprising his reflections during his time prison.
Fuelled by his book, his family’s advocacy and his hunger strike, several world leaders have called for his release.
In recent months, the British government has consistently raised Abdel Fattah’s case with Egyptian authorities, including during talks between Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Sisi.
– ‘Invisible’ –
Abdel Fattah and his family played a prominent role in the January 2011 protests that toppled Mubarak.
With his signature curls and scruffy beard, he was a regular sight at demonstrations in the following years.
Abdel Fattah initially backed the overthrow of Islamist president Morsi by then-defence minister Sisi in 2013.
But he would later became a leading critical voice against the crackdown that swiftly followed, as both Islamist and secular dissidents were killed or rounded up en masse.
In 2014, Abdel Fattah was sentenced to five years for protesting a 2013 law that banned all demonstrations except those authorised by police.
He was released in March 2019 to begin a five-year probation period, spending every night in a police station, but was arrested again in September that year in the wake of rare, small-scale anti-government protests.
In December 2021, he was sentenced to five years in prison.
Abdel Fattah was due to be released in September 2024, but authorities told his family they had decided not to count his remand period as part of his sentence.
The authorities “want me to be so oppressed that I am rendered invisible”, Abdel Fattah told AFP during his brief spell of freedom in 2019.
bur-maf/jsa
