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Cairo – Egyptian-British activist and blogger Alaa Abd el-Fattah, long regarded as a symbol of Egypt’s pro-democracy struggle, was pardoned on Tuesday by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, state-aligned television channels reported. The decision comes less than two weeks after Sisi directed authorities to review his case, following years of appeals from family members and international pressure, including a personal plea from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer earlier this year.

Abd el-Fattah, 43, has spent nearly all of the past decade behind bars, most recently serving a five-year sentence handed down in December 2021 for sharing a social media post about a prisoner’s death. His release marks a rare concession from a government that has presided over one of the harshest crackdowns on dissent in Egypt’s modern history.

A Decade of Imprisonment and Protest
Abd el-Fattah rose to prominence during the 2011 Arab Spring uprising, when his blogs and social media accounts amplified the voices of protesters who converged on Cairo’s Tahrir Square to demand the fall of longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak. He was briefly detained under Mubarak and later became a leading voice for democracy and human rights.

But his fortunes shifted dramatically after then-army chief Sisi ousted Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013. As security forces killed hundreds of protesters, Islamists, liberals, and leftists alike were swept up in mass arrests. Abd el-Fattah was repeatedly targeted: sentenced to five years in 2015 for protesting without a permit, held under restrictive probation, and detained again in 2019.

In December 2021, he was sentenced once more—this time for “spreading false news,” a charge widely used to silence government critics. He spent years in Cairo’s notorious Tora prison, where his family said he was denied sunlight, reading material, and exercise, and endured abuse at the hands of guards.

“My conditions are but a drop in a dark sea of injustice,” Abd el-Fattah wrote in a 2019 statement to prosecutors, later published in his book You Have Not Yet Been Defeated, a collection of essays and writings smuggled from prison.

Hunger Strikes and Global Attention
Abd el-Fattah’s imprisonment drew global attention, particularly during his seven-month hunger strike in 2022, which escalated during Egypt’s hosting of the COP27 climate summit. He only ended the strike after collapsing and nearly dying, his family said.

In September 2024, his mother, Laila Soueif—a prominent activist in her own right—also began a hunger strike to protest her son’s continued detention. She ended her protest in July 2025, after losing more than 35 kilograms, amid appeals from family members.

A Political Legacy
Abd el-Fattah comes from a family deeply rooted in activism. His mother is a former mathematics professor and long-time campaigner, while his late father, Ahmed Seif, was a lawyer and left-wing activist who spent years in prison under both Mubarak and Anwar Sadat.

Beyond activism, Abd el-Fattah was a software developer who worked on adapting open-source programs for Arabic speakers. His intellectual and political contributions helped inspire a generation of Egyptians who once believed democratic change was within reach.

Rights Groups vs. the State
Human rights organizations estimate that tens of thousands of political prisoners remain behind bars in Egypt, many held without due process and subjected to torture and other abuses.

Sisi’s supporters argue the crackdown was essential to stabilize the country after years of upheaval, pointing to government efforts to provide jobs, housing, and basic services. Egyptian officials, rejecting foreign criticism, insist that detainees—including Abd el-Fattah—have been treated in accordance with the law.

Abd el-Fattah’s release, however, will be seen as a significant moment in Egypt’s fraught human rights record—a reminder of the unfinished aspirations of the 2011 revolution and the continuing contest between authoritarian control and calls for freedom.