Prominent Egyptian-British human rights activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah has been freed after spending most of the past 12 years in prison, his family said, a day after Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi pardoned him and five other prisoners.
“I can’t even describe what I feel,” Abd El-Fattah’s mother, Laila Soueif, said from her house in Giza early on Tuesday as she stood next to her son, surrounded by jubilant family and friends.
“We’re happy, of course. But our greatest joy will come when there are no [political] prisoners in Egypt,” she said.
Considered to be among the most high-profile political prisoners in Egypt, Abd El-Fattah’s lengthy imprisonment and repeated hunger strikes had prompted international pleas for the Egyptian government to release him.
The former blogger had been detained before the Arab Spring uprising that toppled Egypt’s hardline leader, Hosni Mubarak, in 2011 and during the years of upheaval that followed.
But it was his criticism of government crackdowns on political dissidents after then-army chief el-Sisi gained power in Egypt in 2014 that landed him his lengthiest prison stints by far.
In 2014, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison for protesting without permission. He was briefly released in 2019, but remained on parole, and was arrested again later that year and sentenced to another five-year term.
Friends, family and supporters shared photos on social media of the activist after his release, showing a smiling Abd El-Fattah embracing his mother and other relatives.
His sister, Mona Seif, celebrated her brother’s release on social media: “The world is full of nightmares, injustice, violence, and many things that break the heart.. but we can take a breath and give happiness a chance to fill our hearts.. and keep going.”
“Oh Lord, the same joy for the families of all the detainees,” she wrote in a separate post.
“Can you imagine if this happened, how much beauty and happiness would fill our world in a single moment?”
An exceptionally kind day 💛
Alaa is free pic.twitter.com/nmg4oROSTi
— Mona Seif (@Monasosh) September 22, 2025
Abd El-Fattah’s lengthy detention had become emblematic of the fraying of Egypt’s democracy.
“I strongly welcome the news that Alaa Abd El-Fattah has received a Presidential pardon,” United Kingdom Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said.
“I’m grateful to President Sisi for this decision. We look forward to Alaa being able to return to the UK, to be reunited with his family.”
Abd El-Fattah, who obtained UK citizenship through his mother in 2021, comes from a family of well-known activists and intellectuals who had launched several campaigns for his release.
His mother met UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer earlier this year to lobby for her son’s release.
Intensifying her campaign in September 2024, when she was expecting her son’s release due to the time he spent in pre-trial detention, Soueif staged a lengthy hunger strike in the UK, ending it only after pleas from her family as her health significantly deteriorated.
Starmer had promised he would do everything he could to secure the release of Abd El-Fattah, who has also staged multiple hunger strikes in detention, most recently in early September, to protest against his imprisonment and in solidarity with his mother.
But his most dramatic hunger strike was in 2022, as Egypt hosted the annual United Nations climate summit in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. The strike ended when Abd El-Fattah lost consciousness and was revived with fluids.
Egypt’s National Council for Human Rights, a state-funded body, also welcomed his release, saying it signalled a growing emphasis on swift justice for Egyptian authorities.
