WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Middle East Democracy Center welcomes the news that Egyptian President Abdelfattah el-Sisi has pardoned British-Egyptian pro-democracy activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah. While his release from unjust detention is long overdue, we are relieved that he will finally be free and able to reunite with his family.
Alaa, a prominent figure in Egypt’s 2011 revolution, has spent the majority of the past decade unjustly behind bars in the country solely for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression. In 2014, he was arrested for peacefully protesting and sentenced to 15 years in prison, a sentence that was later reduced to five years. Just six months after his conditional release, he was rearrested and sentenced to another five years in prison on bogus “spreading false news” charges over tweets. Despite completing five years in prison in September 2024, authorities refused to release him.
While in prison, Alaa has been subjected to ill-treatment and torture, been held in dire conditions, and was routinely denied access to fresh air and sunlight. Alaa launched several lengthy hunger strikes over the course of his imprisonment, including during the COP27 climate summit in Egypt in 2022.
Over the past decade, Alaa’s son Khaled – who was born while Alaa was previously detained in 2012 for his peaceful activism – has grown up without his father. In 2014, Alaa also missed the death of his father while in jail. Throughout his imprisonment, his family has campaigned tirelessly for his release. Over the past year, his mother, prominent activist Laila Soueif, was hospitalized after launching a hunger strike in protest of Alaa’s ongoing imprisonment.
“Freeing Alaa Abd El-Fattah is not justice. It is simply the end of an injustice that should have never happened. We welcome his long overdue release, nearly a year after he completed his sentence,” said Sara Mohamed, unjust detention manager at the Middle East Democracy Center. ”Egyptian authorities must now take the next step and release all those unjustly detained. The same power that freed Alaa can and must be used to return freedom and dignity to countless others behind bars.”
