Alaa Abd el-Fattah became a prominent campaigner during Arab Spring protests in Cairo in 2011 that led to the downfall of former president Hosni Mubarak.
In 2014, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison – later reduced to five – for protesting without permission.
He was released in 2019 but was arrested again that year for sharing a Facebook post about human rights abuses in Egyptian prisons, leading to another five-year term in 2021 for “spreading fake news”.
High-profile local and international campaigns have called for his release and last year Egypt removed him from its “terrorism” list.
Mr Fattah has British citizenship through his mother, Laila Soueif, who went on hunger strike over his case and met Sir Keir Starmer to push for her son’s freedom.
The 43-year-old also undertook multiple hunger strikes of his own to highlight his case.
Today his lawyer, Khaled Ali, writing in Arabic on Facebook, posted: “God is the judge. The President of the Republic has issued a decree pardoning Alaa Abdel Fattah. Congratulations.”
His sister said on X that she and her mother were “heading to the prison now to inquire from where Alaa will be released and when”.
“Omg I can’t believe we get our lives back!” she added.
The Egyptian president’s office said another five prisoners were also pardoned, but it’s not yet known exactly when they will all be freed.
Mr Ali said he expected his client to be released from Wadi Natron prison, north of Cairo, in the next few days.
Mr Fattah became known for his blogging and social media activity during the Arab Spring protests in Cairo’s Tahrir Square 14 years ago.
But a wide-ranging crackdown on Islamists, liberals and leftists by the new president, former army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, led to the activist being imprisoned for the first time.
During his second spell in jail, his family said he was locked up without sunlight, exercise and books – and abused by the guards.
Mr Fattah’s mother – a former maths professor- and lawyer father, who died in 2014. were also both activists.
Lawyer Khaled Ali tried to get Mr Fattah freed in 2024, arguing his two years of pre-trial detention should be counted, but prosecutors resisted and said he wouldn’t be allowed out until January 2027.
The refusal prompted the campaigner’s mother to begin another hunger strike in September last year, which she only ended two months ago following pleas from her family after she lost 35kg.
Human rights groups say tens of thousands of prisoners of conscience have been incarcerated under the current president.
They allege they are denied due process and suffer abuse and torture – claims denied by Egyptian officials.
