Alaa Abdel Fattah: Egypt's president pardons prominent activist

The British-Egyptian activist is one of six people whose sentences President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi commuted, according to state media.

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Abdel Fattah was one of six people whose sentences were commuted following a request from the National Council for Human Rights, according to Al-Qahera News. His sister Mona Seif wrote on X: "My heart will explode."

The 43-year-old blogger and pro-democracy activist is one of Egypt's best known political prisoners.

He was arrested in 2019, months after finishing a previous five-year sentence, and convicted two years later of "spreading false news" for sharing a Facebook post about a prisoner dying after torture.

His family said he should have been released in September 2024. However, Egyptian authorities refused to count the two years he spent in pre-trial detention as time served.