Egypt must release activist after he served his sentence, family says

The family of Egyptian activist Alaa Abdel Fattah, who has been detained in Egypt since 2019, has accused authorities of refusing to release him despite the fact that he has served his sentence.

Alaa, who is also a British citizen, was arrested on 29 September 2019 and sentenced to five years in prison on charges of spreading “false information” on social media.

In a video clip posted on social media, Mona Seif, Alaa’s sister revealed that the authorities have rejected a request to count the first two years of his pretrial detention as part of his sentence, which would have allowed him to be released yesterday.

She explained that they are considering the date of his court verdict as the starting date of his sentence, which means that he will be released in January 2027. This, she  said, is a violation of the law.

Alaa obtained British citizenship while in prison in 2022. Last Thursday, his family called on the British government to take action to secure his release.

Last Wednesday, 59 local, regional and international civil society organisations called on the Egyptian authorities to release him by Sunday, which marked the end of his five-year prison sentence.

In 2022, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights called for his immediate release.

NGOs indicate that there are tens of thousands of political detainees in Egypt, many of them facing very difficult conditions in prisons.

Abdel Fattah is considered a prominent symbol of the January 2011 revolution that led to the overthrow of the late President Hosni Mubarak. He is also an opponent of the current regime’s President, Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi.

He has been arrested several times since 2006.

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