Egypt's Sisi orders study of pardon for activist Alaa Abdel Fattah

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ordered authorities on Tuesday to study a petition for a presidential pardon for prominent rights activist Alaa Abdel Fattah, the state-affiliated human rights council said.

Sisi "directed the relevant authorities to study the petition" submitted by the National Human for Rights Council to pardon a number of individuals, including Abdel Fattah, a dual Egyptian-British activist who has been jailed for much of the past decade.

The 43-year-old activist was a leading figure in Egypt's 2011 uprising and was jailed under successive governments since.

His 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.

The Egyptian presidency did not comment on the petition and the move does not guarantee Abdel Fattah's release, as the pardon process can be lengthy and remains at the discretion of the president.

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

The council said in a statement that the petition came in response to appeals from the prisoners' families "to grant them a new chance in life".

Following Abdel Fattah's latest arrest in 2019, he 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.

Authorities told his family they had decided not to count his two years in pre-trial detention, which normally counts towards jail sentences in Egypt.

In July, the criminal court ordered his removal from the country's terrorism list, ruling that recent investigations showed no evidence linking him to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. 

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

While Egypt has recently issued presidential pardons for several political prisoners, Abdel Fattah has remained behind bars.

© Agence France-Presse