Egypt's Al Sissi pardons activist Alaa Abdel Fattah

Cairo: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sissi issued a pardon on Monday for prominent activist Alaa Abdel Fattah, who has been jailed for the better part of the past decade, state-linked media reported.

The 43-year-old British-Egyptian national, who was pardoned alongside five others, was a leading figure in Egypt's 2011 uprising and was jailed under each administration since.

"The Egyptian president issues a pardon for the remainder of the prison sentence for a number of convicted persons, after taking the constitutional and legal procedures in this regard," said Al Qahera News, which is linked to Egypt's state intelligence services.

"The pardon includes... Alaa Ahmed Seif El-Islam Abdel Fattah," it added.

Following his latest arrest in 2019, Abdel Fattah was sentenced in December 2021 to five years in prison for "spreading false news" after sharing a Facebook post about alleged torture in Egyptian jails.

Monday's pardon comes just days after Al Sissi ordered relevant authorities to study a petition submitted by the state-affiliated National Council for Human Rights to pardon a number of individuals, including Abdel Fattah.

It also followed a decision by a Cairo criminal court to remove Abdel Fattah from the country's terrorism list, ruling that recent investigations showed no evidence linking him to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group.

The British government has consistently raised Abdel Fattah's case with Egyptian authorities, including during talks between Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Sisi.

The United Nations has also called his detention arbitrary and urged his immediate release.

Alaa's mother, activist and academic Laila Soueif, recently ended a 10-month hunger strike demanding his release.

Abdel Fattah himself has been on hunger strike since the start of September, following a partial strike that began in March in solidarity with his mother.