Egypt’s best-known political prisoner, Alaa Abd El-Fattah, was granted a presidential pardon on Monday and has reunited with his family after spending most of the last 12 years in prison. The writer and political dissident was a leading voice in the 2011 Arab Spring protests that toppled the Mubarak dictatorship, and he has been repeatedly targeted by the current authoritarian government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Most recently, he was sentenced to five years in prison for a Facebook post. That sentence ended last September, but authorities refused to release him, saying his two years of pretrial detention did not count. Monday’s pardon comes after years of international pressure to “Free Alaa,” including in the United Kingdom, where he also holds citizenship. Both Alaa and his mother, Laila Soueif, participated in lengthy hunger strikes.
Ahdaf Soueif, Abd El-Fattah’s aunt, says his release has brought the family “tremendous relief,” as well as “hope that this is the beginning of the release of a lot of other political prisoners” in Egypt.
We also speak with journalist Sharif Abdel Kouddous, who has covered the case for many years. “Alaa is free, but he doesn’t have justice,” he says. “There’s still so many thousands of political prisoners in Egypt, including dozens who are behind bars simply for speaking out in solidarity with Palestine and against Israel’s genocide in Gaza.”