Alaa Abdel Fattah is free. Will it be a turning point for Egypt?

On 21 September, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi referred the country’s proposed amendments to the Criminal Procedure Law back to parliament, just months after lawmakers had passed them.

A day later, he issued a presidential pardon for six detainees - among them the prominent activist Alaa Abdel Fattah.

Two days after the announcement, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights welcomed Alaa’s release as a “positive development” but rejected the proposed law, urging Egypt to use this moment to review its flaws.

The UN also renewed calls for the release of Egypt’s estimated 60,000 political prisoners.

Alaa Abdel Fattah's release sparked cautious optimism within Egypt’s political and human rights circles. Yet the mood quickly soured as security forces detained several activists and rights defenders across the country that same week.

Such contrasting signals have revived a central question: is Egypt embarking on a genuine path of reform, or are these just temporary gestures in response to internal and external pressures?

A controversial law returned

Sisi relied on Article 123 of the constitution to send the Criminal Procedure Law back to parliament - a code often described as Egypt’s “second constitution” for its role in shaping the relationship between citizens and the state in the justice system.

His office explained the decision as a response to “numerous appeals” urging revisions to the legislation, which parliament had approved on 29 April 2025.

Critics warned that the law has been rushed without adequate consultation, and that vague provisions - including those allowing preventive detention for the “disturbance of public order” - risk arbitrary or prolonged detention, effectively turning it into punishment before trial.

Legal experts also cite conflicts with constitutional guarantees, weak safeguards for defendants, and an appeals system tilted toward the state.

They caution that the overhaul is too sweeping and hasty for legislation of this importance.

The presidency’s statement called for “stronger guarantees for the sanctity of homes and defendants’ rights before investigators and courts, more alternatives to pretrial detention, and clearer wording to remove ambiguities”. The intervention followed months of legal and civil society criticism at home and abroad.

The decision, followed by Alaa’s release, was welcomed by political parties and rights groups, who hailed them as a “victory for civil society” and a chance to calm Egypt’s tense political climate.

Prominent lawyer Malek Adly called the referral “a win for dialogue,” crediting efforts by the press and lawyers’ syndicates and NGOs to press their objections effectively.

For Adly, the move is recognition that genuine concerns exist, requiring serious debate to produce a fair law.

But others doubt the parliament’s independence. Amr Hashim Rabie, a member of the National Dialogue’s board, said the legislature would likely play only a procedural role, rubber-stamping instructions from Sisi’s legal advisers rather than holding meaningful debate. “This will be a staged show of responsiveness,” he told The New Arab.

Adly counters that reform depends less on legal drafting than on implementation. “Even a perfect law means nothing if violations continue. The real test is enforcement.”

Pretrial detention and presidential pardons

The optimism of Alaa Abdel Fattah’s release did not last. Days later, activist Ahmed Douma was summoned by state security prosecutors, describing the process as “exhaustion through endless investigations”.

Researcher and journalist Ismail Alexandrani was also arrested on 24 September, accused of 18 Facebook posts he admitted writing as personal opinions. He remains in detention. Douma was detained for the sixth time this year, charged with spreading false news, before being released on bail of EGP 50,000 ($1,045) on 29 September.

Such cases fuel doubts over whether piecemeal pardons represent systemic change. Adly notes that Egypt’s current law already caps pretrial detention at two years - yet some prisoners have exceeded three. “The gap between law and practice is the real issue,” he said.

Political sociologist Ammar Ali Hassan argued that sporadic releases do not add up to a genuine shift. “The political system releases with an eyedropper, then arrests with a waterwheel,” he told The New Arab.  “Arrests in recent years far outnumber releases.”

For him, Alaa’s release is a one-off case shaped by unique circumstances, not proof of a new pattern.

Hassan believes real reform requires systemic measures, not individual pardons. “If authorities want to release people, they should issue a general law with clear criteria. Anything less is cosmetic.”

Reform or window dressing?

Egypt launched a five-year National Human Rights Strategy in September 2021, which was reactivated during the National Dialogue in April 2022. Since then, authorities have announced the release of hundreds of prisoners through pardons and bail decisions.

Yet international bodies remain sceptical. Egypt’s National Council for Human Rights was downgraded from “A” to “B” status over concerns about its independence. Critics point to the persistence of pretrial detention and the large number of people jailed for expression.

A source within the Presidential Pardon Committee, who spoke to The New Arab on the condition of anonymity because of safety concerns, was pessimistic, arguing that Egypt does not need a sweeping legislative battle now.

“The problem isn’t the absence of texts but their non-implementation,” he said. “The priority should be enforcing the current law properly before rewriting it.”

He doubted parliament’s capacity to revise such weighty legislation, predicting it would only amend the articles flagged by the president without touching other contentious provisions. In his view, the debate should be postponed until the next parliament can conduct a thorough review.

Hope in the fog

The release of Alaa Abdel Fattah, one of Egypt’s most emblematic dissidents, was celebrated by rights defenders as a symbolic breakthrough.

Yet the simultaneous arrests and unresolved flaws in Egypt’s justice system temper expectations.

As Egypt juggles constitutional reforms, presidential pardons, and continued crackdowns, the struggle between symbolic gestures and structural change remains unresolved.

Whether Alaa’s freedom marks the start of a genuine opening or another fleeting exception is a question that hangs over Egypt’s uncertain political horizon.

This article is published in collaboration with Egab