Egypt frees activist Alaa Abdel Fattah after Sisi pardon

Prominent Egyptian-British human rights defender Alaa Abdel Fattah was released from prison after years behind bars and reunited with his family in an emotional celebration following a long-awaited pardon by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

A key figure in Egypt's 2011 uprising, Abdel Fattah, 43, was released after years of advocacy efforts by family members, rights groups and the British government, with his mother, Leila Soueif, going on hunger strike.

At the family home in Cairo, celebrations went on early into Tuesday morning, with Abdel Fattah smiling and jumping for joy as he embraced his mother, sister and friends.

"I still can't believe it and I can't grasp that Alaa is with us, so I'll need some time to absorb it," said his sister Sanaa Seif, herself a former political prisoner.

"I told my friend that life has returned to us," she added.

Abdel Fattah had been held at Wadi al-Natrun prison, roughly 80 kilometres (50 miles) from Cairo.

Following the announcement of Sisi's pardon on Monday, Abdel Fattah's family had rushed there to awaithis release, only to discover he had already returned home.

"Alaa is free" and "Home" read the captions on photos posted on social media by his relatives early Tuesday.

Abdel Fattah had opposed every Egyptian administration since the early 2000s, when activists in the country started using social media to express dissent.

He was last arrested in 2019 after sharing a Facebook post about police violence and was sentenced in 2021 to five years in prison for "spreading false news" -- a charge frequently brought against dissidents in Egypt.

According to the family, Abdel Fattah still faces a travel ban, despite the fact he is a British citizen, with his wife and 10-year-old son living in the UK.

"I hope this will mark the end of our difficulties and that Alaa will be allowed to travel and reunite with his son," Seif said.

"I never wish for anyone else to go through what we went through."

- 'Grateful' -

The Britishgovernment had repeatedly raised Abdel Fattah's case with Egyptian authorities, including during talks between Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Sisi.

British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper welcomed the pardon, writing on X that she was "grateful to President Sisi for this decision".

"We look forward to Alaa being able to return to the UK, to be reunited with his family," she wrote.

Abdel Fattah was granted British citizenship in 2022 while he was behind bars through his mother, who holds dual nationality.

The pardon came after Sisi ordered authorities earlier this month to study a petition submitted by the state-affiliated National Council for Human Rights to pardon a number of detainees, including Abdel Fattah.

It also followed a decision by a Cairo criminal court to remove Abdel Fattah from the country's terrorism list, ruling that recent investigations showed no evidence linking him to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) described the pardon as "long overdue good news", calling for the release of other dissidents.

"Though we celebrate his pardon, thousands of people like Alaa are still languishing in Egyptian jails simply for exercising their rights to freedom of speech," said HRW's senior Middle East and North Africa researcher, Amr Magdi.

"Hopefully his release will act as a watershed moment and provide an opportunity for Sisi's government to end the wrongful detention of thousands of peaceful critics."

Activist Ahmed Douma, himself a former detainee, told AFP that the pardon is "an important and necessary step, but Alaa should never have been in prison in the first place."

In May, a United Nations panel of experts determined that Abdel Fattah's detention was arbitrary and illegal, and called for his immediate release.

Last month, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk also urged the Egyptian authorities to end a practice allowing the prolonged arbitrary detention of government critics.

The practice, known as "rotation", often involves lodging new charges against detainees just before their remand period ends.

Turk said the practice "appears to be used to circumvent the rights of individuals to liberty, due process and equality before the law".

Since 2022, Sisi's administration has released hundreds of detainees and pardoned several high-profile dissidents, including Abdel Fattah's lawyer Mohamed al-Baqer.

Hundreds of activists and opposition politicians remain behind bars.