Alaa's family urges freedom for all Egyptian political prisoners after long-due presidential pardon

A presidential pardon by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi for British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abdel Fattah has delighted his family and spread hopes for an improvement in Egypt's human rights record in the coming period.

Abdel Fattah, a prominent activist, blogger, and writer who gained fame during the 2011 Arab Spring uprising that ousted President Hosni Mubarak, was granted clemency by the Egyptian president on September 22, following a petition by Egypt's rights watchdog to this effect.

"Thanks are to God," Alaa's sister, Sanaa, wrote on Facebook. "I cannot believe the news."

Abdel Fattah was one of six political prisoners given pardon by the Egyptian president on Monday.

A vocal critic of the post-2013 crackdown on dissent under President Sisi, Abdel Fattah has spent much of the past decade in and out of prison.

He was supposed to be released a year ago, but the prison authorities insisted that he had not completed his full term.

The pardon given him comes only two days after Sanaa expressed disappointment at the failure of the authorities to speed up this release.

Alaa's sister even suspected in a post on Facebook that someone or entity was delaying his release.

"Whose interests does this delay serve?" Sanaa asked in her post.

However, the pardon given him by the Egyptian president fuelled hopes in her that it would be the beginning of a series of other pardons.

"I have hopes that this will be the beginning for other pardons for those put in jail for expressing themselves freely," she said.

Long-drawn process

Until the writing of this report, the Egyptian presidency has not issued a statement about the pardon the Egyptian president gave to Abdel Fattah and the five other political prisoners, which was reported earlier in the day by Egyptian state television.

The 22 September clemency given these prisoners followed a 9 September directive by Sisi ordering authorities to review a petition from the state-affiliated National Council for Human Rights (NCHR), which recommended pardons for Abdel Fattah and six others.

Abdel Fattah's name was removed from Egypt's Terrorism List earlier this year, giving hopes to human rights advocates and his family that as a decision, this would pave the way for a review of his case and subsequent release.

His most recent five-year sentence, imposed in December 2021, was based on charges of spreading false news, which stemmed from sharing a social media post about a prisoner's death.

Abdel Fattah was rearrested in 2019 amid protests against Sisi, after a brief release on probation.

His case drew global attention due to his dual citizenship which he gained through his British mother in 2021, repeated hunger strikes, including one in solidarity with his ailing mother, Laila Soueif, who herself hunger-struck in London, and his status as a symbol of resistance against authoritarianism.

Human rights lawyer Negad al-Borae said the pardon given to Alaa by the Egyptian president offers a ray of hope that other political prisoners would come next.

"This pardon gives an important message, in fact," al-Borae told TNA.

He called on the Egyptian president to look into the cases of other political activists, including 200 people who had been imprisoned earlier for staging a protest in solidarity with the Gaza Strip and against the Israeli war on this Palestinian territory.

"I think we are well on the right path," al-Borae said.

Why now? 

A combination of motivations may have stood behind the decision of the Egyptian president to grant pardon to Abdel Fattah and the other activists, observers in Cairo said.

These motivations include domestic, family and international factors that have likely influenced the decision.

These align with Egypt's occasional use of pardons for high-profile prisoners amid economic pressures and diplomatic needs, the same observers said.

The NCHR's petition sent the Egyptian president explicitly cited "critical family circumstances" for the recommended pardons.

It said given the prisoners, whose names were included in the petition, pardon would "represent a deeply significant moral incentive for their families and would substantially contribute to restoring their stability as well as their psychological and social balance".

A joint letter from human rights groups in March 2025 urged Sisi to grant clemency under Article 155 of the Egyptian Constitution, framing it as an "act of humanity" to reunite Abdel Fattah with his family, including his young son.

Meanwhile, Abdel Fattah's British citizenship amplified calls for his release from the British government, including a direct plea from Prime Minister Keir Starmer to Sisi in February 2025.

It is important also to note that the pardon given the British Egyptian activist came only a day after Starmer officially recognised a Palestinian state.

In February this year, Human Rights Watch noted that releasing Abdel Fattah could signal human rights commitments in bilateral relations and attract foreign investment amid Egypt's economic woes.

Abdel Fattah's repeated hunger strikes—most recently starting 1 March 2025, and shifting to a partial strike in July—drew widespread sympathy and urgency.

His partial strike ended after his delisting from the Terrorism List, but it underscored the risks of prolonged detention, potentially prompting Sisi to act to avoid a high-profile death in custody.

The pardon given him and other prisoners came only a short time after Egyptian authorities had pardoned other political prisoners.

These pardons, the same observers said, may help soften Sisi's image on human rights, even without broader reforms, especially as Egypt grapples with economic challenges, amid belief that repression usually deters investors.

Al-Borae expressed hopes for an improvement in Egypt's human rights record in the coming period.

"Human rights issues will continue to fuel a struggle between the civil society and governments forever, not only here, but also everywhere else," al-Borae said.

"We only need to reach a common ground where there will be abidance by the constitution and the law," he added.

What's next?

Abdel Fattah's family members keep posting comments to social media, where they express eagerness to welcome him back into the family.

Sanaa, who said earlier that she still cannot believe that she would physically touch her brother, for the first time in years, soon, asked the members of the media not to go to Natroun Prison, a maximum-security facility about 100 kilometres northwest of Cairo, where Abdel Fattah is held.

"They [the prison authority] have not received the pardon order yet," Sanaa wrote on her Facebook page.

Presidential pardons are usually effective in Egypt after they are published in the official gazette, according to legal experts.

The publication of the pardon order, the same experts added, functions as an official notification for the prison authorities to implement it.

The prison authorities will then take a decision to either directly release the person subject to the pardon order or send him to the police station of their place of residence to release them from there.

"All in all, finalising the release procedures can take a day or two," Abdel Fattah's lawyer, Khaled Ali, told TNA.

He added that after his release, either directly from Natroun Prison, or from the police station of his place of residence, Abdel Fattah would be able to travel if he wanted, especially after the removal of his name from Egypt's Terrorism List in July this year.

"He is not implicated in any infringements at present," Ali said. "This means that he is totally clear."

"He is now free to leave Egypt if he wants, especially after his name was removed from Egypt's Terrorism List months ago. Abdel Fattah is not implicated in any legal infringements at present, which is why I say he is totally clear," the lawyer added.