A British-Egyptian activist out of prison

British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abdel Fattah was released and found with her family after almost six years’ imprisonment in Egypt.

One of the most eminent political prisoners in the country, he was pardoned by President Abdul Fattah al-Sissi on Monday, which would have been a request from the National Council for Human Rights.

Video of the pro-democracy blogger and activist, 43, at home after his release, he shows it largely with a smile and jumping from top to bottom while he celebrates with his sister and mother.

Laila Soueif, who made a vast hunger strike during the imprisonment of her son, said to her release: “Despite our great joy, the greatest joy is when there are no (political) prisoners.”

Abdel Fattah was released from Wadi Al-Natrun prison on Monday on Monday and celebrated his family in his mother’s apartment in Giza’s apartment.

“I cannot yet understand that it is real,” said his sister Sanaa Seif.

The activist was arrested in 2019 during a repression against dissent and sentenced to five years in prison after being found guilty of having “spread false news” for sharing a post on a deceased torture prisoner.

Two weeks ago, Sisi ordered the authorities to study the petitions of the NCHR for the release of Abdel Fattah and six others, that the institution declared that it had submitted “to the light of humanitarian and health conditions suffered by (their) families”.

His family said he should have been released in September 2024, but the two years he spent in prior detention at trial were not counted as the time of the Egyptian authorities.

When Abdel Fattah was not released at the end of her five -year sentence, his mother Laila Soueif began a long hunger strike to call for her release.

She was hospitalized at St Thomas Hospital in London and was close to death twice during the 287 -day strike, which ended on July 14 after the secretary to foreigners, David Lammy, told Parliament that he “expected that he” expected him to expect (Abdel Fattah) to be released on June 25.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer had previously declared that he would obtain the freedom of Abdel Fattah and that there had been widespread intermediate support for his release.

It is not clear if Abdel Fattah will be able to go to the United Kingdom to be with his son, although his sister declared to his release that his release “would feel more real” when “his son arrives here from travel”.

The activist gained importance during the 2011 uprising in Egypt who forced the longtime president Hosni Mubarak to resign.

He spent most of his time in prison since 2014, the year after Sissi led the reversal of the military of the first democratically elected Egyptian president, the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohammed Morsi.

Sisi has supervised what human rights groups say they are an unprecedented repression against dissent that has led to the detention of tens of thousands of people.

Although Abdel Fattah acquired British citizenship in 2021, Egypt never allowed him a consular visit to British diplomats.

In May, the United Nations working group on arbitrary detention – a panel of independent human rights experts – noted that Abdel Fattah had been arbitrarily arrested for having exercised his right to freedom of expression, had not been tried fair and had remained in detention for his political opinions.

According to the panel, the Egyptian government said that it had received “all fair trial rights” and that its sentence would be completed in January 2027.