CAIRO (AP) – Egyptian authorities announced the amnesty for the president of a prominent activist on Monday Ala Abd el-fattasomeone who has been in prison for almost all of the past 12 years.
A statement from the president’s office said five other prisoners were also allowed. It was not immediately clear when they would walk freely.
Activist lawyer Khaled Ali told The Associated Press on Monday that Abd El Fatta is expected to be released from Wadi Natron prison, just north of Cairo.
Laila SoueifAbdel Fatta’s mother said she was heading to the prison where her son is being held. “I won’t rest until he goes outside,” she said.
Abd El-Fattah was a leading activist before spending years in prison
Abd El-Fattah was the main voice in the 2011 Arab Spring uprising, with multiple hunger behind the bar. His ordeal has come to symbolize the fraying of Egyptian democracy.
Activists took part in the 2011 uprising that overthrew an authoritarian former president Hosni Mubarakand later, he was actively and aggressive in protest against human rights abuse and civilian military trials.
He was first sent to prison in 2014, when he was involved in unauthorized protests and allegedly assaulted a police officer before being released in early 2014. He was arrested again in September 2019 following a rare anti-government protest in Egypt.
when His release date was released in September 2024authorities refused to count the more than two years he spent in pre-trial detention and held him until January 3, 2027.
“My heart explodes,” his sister, Mona Seyff, posted on Facebook, reassuring about the news of his forgiveness.
Hunger strike and petition
The Egyptian President’s pardon Abdel Fatta Elssi It came after an independent rights group filed a petition with the President’s office earlier this month.
The National Human Rights Council, acting on behalf of the prisoners’ families, urged El-Sissi to consider the situation of Abd El-Fatta and the six other people regarding the “health and humanitarian grounds,” and earlier this month, El-Sissi’s office ordered the relevant authorities to investigate it.
To secure his freedom and take him, Abd El Fatta had quite a desperate campaign to put pressure on the UK, which British Abd El Fatta had acquired that year through his British-born mother. soueif, She began her own hunger strike in the UK, Seriously ill The strike ended in July.
Influential blogger Abd El Fatta comes from a family of political activists, lawyers and writers. His late father is one of Egypt’s most untiring rights lawyers, and his sister, British citizens, are also political activists, and his aunt is award-winning novelist Ahdav Souyev.
Abd El-Fattah’s most dramatic, all-or-nothing hunger strike took place in 2022. Egypt holds its annual UN Climate Summit At the Red Sea Resort in Sharm El Sheikh. that The strike ended when Abd el-Fatta was unconscious. It’s back with liquid.
British, French and German leaders said they called for the release of Abd el-Fatta in personal consultations with Elssi during the climate conference.
Still, the European countries with increasing interest in Egypt’s gas reserves and the US, which views Elssi as an important source of stability, have been reluctant to openly clash with Egypt.
Family and supporters want change
The circumstances surrounding the latest appeal of Abd El-Fattah’s release were different from what was before, Ali told The Associated Press earlier this month.
“This is truly promising. These authorities continue urgently and hope that ALAA will soon be reunited with us,” his sister, Sanaa Souief, told X earlier this month.
Ali said earlier this month that the court order removed the client’s name from the government’s “terrorism list.”
It was not immediately known whether the activists would leave Egypt, but Ali said he hopes his clients will maintain Egyptian citizenship and live in Egypt.
“I hope this pardon will create an opportunity for politicians and activists to find a serious solution to the long-term pretrial detention and sentences just because they had an opinion,” Ali said at the time.
