Egyptian President El Sisi Pardons Alaa Abdel Fattah

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi has issued a presidential pardon for prominent Egyptian-British activist and blogger Alaa Abdel Fattah, state media confirm.

The pardon, published in the official gazette, clears Abdel Fattah and five other prisoners. 

Alaa Abdel Fattah, now 43, has become one of the most recognised dissidents of recent years in Egypt. Gaining prominence during the 2011 Arab Spring uprising, he has been detained multiple times, tried under charges including “spreading false news,” and spent much of the past decade in incarceration.

His most recent sentence came in 2021, following his arrest in 2019. 

Reports say the conviction in 2021 carried a five-year sentence; prior to that, he had been arrested in 2015 for participating in protests without official permission. After a release on probation in early 2019, he was rearrested later that year. 

The presidential pardon follows an appeal by Egypt’s National Council for Human Rights earlier this month, which petitioned President Sisi to grant clemency on humanitarian grounds and to reduce the suffering of prisoners’ families. Abdel Fattah had also endured multiple hunger strikes, including one started in April 2022 and renewed in later years. His mother, Laila Soueif, similarly went on hunger strike in London over his detention. 

Another significant development tied to his case: earlier this year, a Cairo criminal court removed Abdel Fattah from Egypt’s “terrorism” list, where he had been placed in 2020 under broad laws that rights groups and legal observers criticized as vague and repressive. 

While the pardon has been announced, the exact timing of Alaa Abdel Fattah’s release remains uncertain. His sister, Sanaa Seif, expressed surprise at the announcement and said the family is en route to the prison to seek details. 

Human rights organizations have praised the pardon but also highlighted that many detainees in Egypt remain incarcerated under similar charges for exercising freedom of speech. They are urging authorities to translate the pardon into broader reforms in laws and judicial practice. 

Alaa Abdel Fattah’s case has long drawn international attention, with activists, his family, foreign governments—including the UK—and global rights groups campaigning for his release. The pardon is seen by many as a rare moment of concession in a broader climate of crackdowns on dissent. 

His release, when it occurs, will be watched closely—not only by those who have supported him, but by observers of Egypt’s human rights record, and those who believe the move could signal willingness to engage in reform or at least to respond to international pressure.

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