A British-Egyptian activist who has spent years in prison has been pardoned by Egypt’s president, according to his lawyer.
Alaa Abd el-Fattah became a prominent campaigner during protests in Cairo in 2011 that led to the downfall of former president Hosni Mubarak.
In 2014, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison – later reduced to five – for protesting without permission.
He was released in 2019 but was arrested again that year for sharing a Facebook post about human rights abuses in Egyptian prisons, leading to another five-year term.
High-profile local and international campaigns have called for his release and last year Egypt removed him from its “terrorism” list.
Mr Fattah has British citizenship through his mother, who went on hunger strike over his case and met Sir Keir Starmer to push for her son’s freedom.
The 43-year-old also undertook multiple hunger strikes of his own to highlight his case.
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Today his lawyer, Khaled Ali, writing in Arabic on Facebook, posted: “God is the judge. The President of the Republic has issued a decree pardoning Alaa Abdel Fattah. Congratulations.”
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