Pro-democracy activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah, who was in prison for almost all of the past 12 years, hugs his mother Laila Soueif and his sister Sanaa Seif at his home after a presidential pardon in Cairo, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Khaled Elfiqi)
Pro-democracy activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah, left, who was in prison for almost all of the past 12 years, listens to his mother Laila Soueif, after a presidential pardon at his home in Cairo, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Khaled Elfiqi)
Pro-democracy activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah, who was in prison for almost all of the past 12 years, speaks to his friends at his home after he got a presidential pardon, in Cairo, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Khaled Elfiqi)
Laila Soueif, the mother of Pro-democracy activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah, who was in prison for almost all of the past 12 years, speaks to The Associated Press during an interview in Cairo, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Khaled Elfiqi)
Pro-democracy activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah, who was in prison for almost all of the past 12 years, his mother Laila Soueif, and his sister, Sanaa Seif, smile as they receive guests at his home after a presidential pardon in Cairo, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Khaled Elfiqi)
Pro-democracy activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah, who was in prison for almost all of the past 12 years, speaks to his friends on a mobile phone at his home after a presidential pardon in Cairo, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Khaled Elfiqi)
Family reunites as activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah returns home after 12 years in prison
CAIRO (AP) 鈥 The downtown Cairo apartment of Alaa Abd el-Fattah was filled with laughter and joy Tuesday as family and friends gathered to absorb the long-awaited news: the pro-democracy Egyptian-British activist had finally walked free.
Pro-democracy activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah, who was in prison for almost all of the past 12 years, hugs his mother Laila Soueif and his sister Sanaa Seif at his home after a presidential pardon in Cairo, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Khaled Elfiqi)
CAIRO (AP) 鈥 The downtown Cairo apartment of Alaa Abd el-Fattah was filled with laughter and joy Tuesday as family and friends gathered to absorb the long-awaited news: the pro-democracy Egyptian-British activist had finally walked free.
Abd el-Fattah was pardoned by President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and after spending almost all the past 12 years in prison. He and five other prisoners had been pardoned after the National Council for Human Rights acted on behalf of their families, urging the president to consider their situations on humanitarian grounds.
鈥淚 felt a wave of sudden relief as if my body had been clenched tight for years and was finally loosening and just now releasing a weight that I have been carrying,鈥 Abd el-Fattah鈥檚 sister, Sanaa Seif, told The Associated Press at the family apartment. She is one of the family members who waged an international campaign for his release.
ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW
She was walking her dog when the news broke that her brother had been pardoned. As her phone rang nonstop with calls and notifications, she and her family drove to Wadi Natroun prison, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) outside Cairo, to pick him up, only to get a call from a neighbor鈥檚 phone: it was Abd el-Fattah himself, telling them he had already arrived at the family鈥檚 house.
鈥榃rapped by a layer of sadness鈥
Abd el-Fattah was first sent to prison in 2014 for participating in an unauthorized protest and allegedly assaulting a police officer, before being released in early 2019. He was arrested again in September 2019 during a security crackdown that followed rare anti-government protests in Egypt, and after more than two years in pretrial detention, an emergency security court sentenced him to five years for spreading false news.
When his release date , authorities refused to count his time in pretrial detention and ordered him held until Jan. 3, 2027.
When Egypt didn鈥檛 release Abd el-Fattah last September, his mother, Laila Soueif, began her own hunger strike in Britain, but became and ended the strike in July. Soueif, a mathematics professor at Cairo University who was born in London, helped her son get British citizenship in 2021, hoping it would lead to his release.
Due to her deteriorating health from the hunger strike, Soueif frequently received treatment at St. Thomas鈥檚 Hospital in London. She ended the strike in July after multiple appeals from family and friends.
Seif said on Tuesday that her mother, Soueif, is 鈥渕iraculously doing better鈥 despite some lingering health issues.
ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW
ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW
Abd el-Fattah鈥檚 family is still adjusting to his freedom. His sister said she is slowly getting used to hearing her brother鈥檚 voice in the background again.
鈥淥ur happiness, no matter how huge, is wrapped by a layer of sadness because the situation (in Egypt) is bad,” Soueif said. 鈥淩eal happiness will not be complete unless those unjustly detained are released.鈥
A family looks to the future
With Abd el-Fattah now free, his family is looking to the future. Soueif said her son will likely settle a few matters in the U.K. for the sake of his son Khaled, and that she will return to teaching at the university next week.
鈥淚鈥檓 going back to my regular life as a faculty teaching member living in Egypt and expressing opposition against the government when I see something wrong,” she said.
Abd el-Fattah previously took part in the 2011 uprising that toppled autocratic former President , and later was active in protests against human rights abuses and military trials of civilians.
An influential blogger, Abd el-Fattah hails from a family of political activists, lawyers and writers. His late father was one of Egypt鈥檚 most tireless rights lawyers, his sisters 鈥 British citizens as well 鈥 are also political activists, and his aunt is the award-winning novelist Ahdaf Soueif.
Thameen Al-Kheetan, a spokesperson for the UN Human Rights Office, in a statement Tuesday praised Egypt鈥檚 decision to release Abd el-Fattah and called 鈥渙n Egypt to ensure the release of all those arbitrarily detained.鈥
