The downtown Cairo apartment of the Abd el-Fattah family erupted in joy and disbelief this week as Alaa Abd el-Fattah, the British-Egyptian pro-democracy activist, finally walked free after nearly 12 years behind bars. The news, which broke on Monday, September 22, 2025, sent a wave of relief through human rights advocates and supporters worldwide who had long campaigned for his release. President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s decision to pardon Abd el-Fattah, alongside five other prisoners, has been greeted as a long-overdue victory for freedom of expression, but also as a stark reminder of the thousands who remain imprisoned for dissent in Egypt.
Abd el-Fattah’s journey from revolutionary figurehead to the Middle East’s most prominent prisoner of conscience has been fraught with hardship and resilience. According to AP, he was first arrested in 2011 after publishing an article on the military’s killing of protestors, becoming a symbol of the 2011 uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak. His activism did not wane even as Egypt’s political climate darkened. After President Sisi seized power in 2013 and launched a sweeping crackdown on dissent, Abd el-Fattah was arrested again in 2014 for allegedly organizing illegal protests, receiving a five-year sentence. Just six months after his release, he was rearrested for a social media post about torture in Egyptian prisons, later receiving another five-year sentence for spreading “fake news harmful to the national interest.”
His incarceration became emblematic of Egypt’s increasingly repressive environment. As Reuters reported, Abd el-Fattah’s detention drew international condemnation. The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention declared his imprisonment unlawful, and calls for his release echoed from world leaders and organizations. “We are thrilled to see Alaa reunited with his family and friends and look forward to seeing him together with his son in the UK,” said Burhan Sönmez, president of PEN International, in a statement quoted by Publishing Perspectives. “He’s a remarkable writer and activist who should never have been imprisoned. While celebrating Alaa’s release, we remember all writers imprisoned for their expression. Egyptian authorities should end their ruthless repression of critical voices and release all those who remain detained for their expression.”
The campaign for Abd el-Fattah’s freedom was as relentless as it was personal. His 69-year-old mother, Laila Soueif—a British-born mathematician and longtime activist—endured a nine-month hunger strike in 2024, losing over a third of her body weight before ending the protest to avoid death. Soueif, who had helped her son obtain British citizenship in 2021, frequently received treatment at St. Thomas’s Hospital in London due to her deteriorating health. “Our happiness, no matter how huge, is wrapped by a layer of sadness because the situation (in Egypt) is bad,” she told AP. “Real happiness will not be complete unless those unjustly detained are released.”
Abd el-Fattah’s sister, Sanaa Seif, played a pivotal role in the international campaign, staging a sit-in outside the UK Foreign Office in 2022 and pressing British officials to act. The family’s efforts bore fruit as senior UK ministers, including Prime Minister Keir Starmer, advocated for his release, garnering cross-Parliamentary support and endorsements from high-profile figures such as former ambassador John Casson and campaigners Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Richard Ratcliffe. According to Publishing Perspectives, the campaign also received backing from the United Nations and various celebrities, highlighting the global resonance of Abd el-Fattah’s plight.
Throughout his imprisonment, Abd el-Fattah remained unbowed. In 2021, he published a book of essays, You Have Not Yet Been Defeated, smuggled out of his maximum-security desert facility. In 2022, as Egypt hosted COP27, he embarked on a seven-month hunger strike, at one point refusing even water and coming perilously close to death. Despite mounting international pressure, Egyptian authorities did not release him after his sentence ended in 2024, prompting his mother’s hunger strike and further intensifying the campaign for his freedom.
When the news of his pardon finally arrived, the family’s relief was palpable. Sanaa Seif described the moment to AP: “I 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.” The family rushed to Wadi Natroun prison to pick him up, only to receive a call from Abd el-Fattah himself—already at home, surrounded by loved ones. Photographs of Abd el-Fattah embracing his mother, both beaming, quickly spread across social media and news outlets, symbolizing a rare moment of triumph for Egypt’s embattled civil society.
Yet, the road ahead remains uncertain. While Abd el-Fattah’s family hopes he will soon be able to travel to the UK and reunite with his son Khaled in Brighton, Egyptian authorities have not confirmed whether they will lift the travel bans that often keep released activists in the country. As Publishing Perspectives and BBC both note, other dissidents have faced years-long restrictions on their movement even after release.
For Abd el-Fattah, the struggle for justice is deeply personal but also part of a broader legacy. He comes from a family steeped in activism: his late father was a renowned rights lawyer, his sisters are both political activists, and his aunt is the award-winning novelist Ahdaf Soueif. “I’m 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,” Laila Soueif told AP, reflecting the family’s enduring commitment to advocacy.
International organizations continue to call on Egypt to release all those arbitrarily detained. Thameen Al-Kheetan, spokesperson for the UN Human Rights Office, praised Egypt’s decision but urged further action: “We call on Egypt to ensure the release of all those arbitrarily detained.” Human Rights Watch’s Amr Magdi echoed this sentiment, telling BBC that Abd el-Fattah’s release was “long overdue good news,” but noting that “thousands of people like Alaa are still languishing in Egyptian jails simply for exercising their rights to freedom of speech.”
As the Abd el-Fattah family adjusts to a new reality, the campaign for justice in Egypt continues. The laughter and relief filling their Cairo apartment this week are hard-won, but the fight for freedom of expression—and for those still behind bars—remains unfinished business.