Egypt's President El Sisi pardons activist Alaa Abdel Fattah

Pardon follows repeated pleas by his family and a series of hunger strikes

Egyptian activist Alaa Abdel Fattah was a central figure in Egypt’s 2011 uprising that forced Hosni Mubarak to step down from power. AFP

Egypt's President Abdel Fattah El Sisi on Monday pardoned Egyptian-British activist and blogger Alaa Abdel Fattah, according to an announcement published in the state's official gazette.

Mr Abdel Fattah has been jailed several times for lobbying in public and on social media. He has been in prison for more than six years this time around.

Mr Abdel Fattah, 43, was a central figure in Egypt’s 2011 uprising that forced Hosni Mubarak to step down after decades in power.

Authorities earlier this month said Mr El Sisi was considering a request by the National Council for Human Rights for Mr Abdel Fattah's release among a list of others. On Monday, the Egyptian leader pardoned five others.

It was not immediately clear when Mr Abdel Fattah and the others would walk free.

"We are like everyone else, we learned [about the pardon] from the media," Mr Abdel Fattah's sister Sanaa Seif wrote on Facebook. "We have no idea where he would be released. We are on our way to prison to ask. Thanks be to God. I cannot believe it!"

Mr Abdel Fattah had gone on a hunger strike several times during his time in prison. His mother, mathematics professor Laila Suef, also went on hunger strike this year and needed hospital treatment in London more than once.

His mother and other members of his family have tirelessly campaigned for his release, including sit-ins outside the Downing Street office of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Mr Abdel Fattah has spent most of the past decade in prison. His latest sentence followed a conviction of spreading false news that earned him a five-year term in December 2021.

Egyptian activist Alaa Abdel Fattah was most recently sentenced to five years in prison. AFP

Mr Abdel Fattah is a member of a highly politicised family. Besides his mother who is a veteran rights campaigner, his late father Ahmed Seif, who died in 2014, was a rights lawyer and left-wing activist jailed under both Mubarak and his predecessor Anwar Sadat.

A software developer by profession, Mr Abdel Fattah was previously sentenced to five years in prison in 2015 for protesting without permission. Released on probation in 2019, he was detained again later that year.

"My conditions are but a drop in a dark sea of injustice," he said in November 2019 in a statement to a prosecutor that was later published in selected works in 2021 under the title You Have Not Yet Been Defeated.

Mr Abdel Fattah began a seven-month hunger strike in April 2022, escalating his protest in November that year to coincide with the opening of the Cop27 climate summit in Egypt.

He ended his protest after collapsing, his family said at the time.

His lawyer, Khalid Ali, argued that his two years in pre-trial detention should have been credited towards his sentence, making him eligible for release in 2024. But prosecutors rejected this argument, saying he should not be released until January 2027, according to Mr Ali.

It was this delay that prompted his mother to go on hunger strike in September 2024, only ending her protest in July 2025 after many appeals from her family and after losing more than 35 kilograms.