‘Time for him to be free:’ Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abdel-Fattah's fate unclear as 5-year sentence nears end

The fate of jailed Egyptian-British political activist Alaa Abdel-Fattah, whose term is technically due in Egypt on 29 September, remains uncertain as his family appeals to the UK government to intervene. 

Officially, Abdel-Fattah will not be released any time soon, which, according to his family and lawyers, is "illegal."

"Alaa is due to be released in January 2027 as per the date of the verdict, though, legally, the nearly two years he had spent in pre-trial detention should be counted as part of his sentence," Abdel-Fattah’s aunt, award-winning British-Egyptian novelist, Ahdaf Soueif, told The New Arab.

On 21 September, Abdel-Fattah’s lawyer and mother, Laila Soueif, filed a petition before the prosecution-general demanding his release on Sunday.

"When my sister, Laila, and Alaa’s lawyers approached the prosecutor-general's office again yesterday [24 September] to seek answers, they were told to resort to the prisoners' affairs authority instead. Then the authority officials said they would get back to them within 10 days,” said Soueif, the aunt.

The prominent 42-year-old activist, also an author, a software developer and a blogger, was first sentenced to five years in 2014 after being convicted of joining an unauthorised protest and assaulting a police officer, charges he denies.

Abddel-Fattah was rearrested less than a year after his release during his parole in a crackdown that followed rare anti-government protests. After spending two years in pre-trial detention, he was found guilty of "spreading false news" among other charges over sharing a social media post about alleged police brutality.

The Egyptian criminal procedures law dictates that the duration a detainee spends in detention before trial is deducted from the sentence, as long as the defendant has not been convicted of any other legal offences during this time.

"It is legally justifiable to count the time Alaa Abdel-Fattah had spent in pre-trial detention as part of his verdict," high-profile lawyer Khaled Ali, representing Abdel-Fattah, said in a post on his Facebook page.

Abdel-Fattah and his two sisters, Sana and Mona Seif, originally Egyptian nationals, had been granted UK passports for being the children of a British-born mother, Laila Soueif, a mathematics professor and activist, who has for decades been fighting for the independence of Egypt’s academic institutions.

Local and international rights groups have repeatedly accused Egypt’s government under President al-Sisi of overseeing the worst crackdown on human rights in decades, with thousands of his critics currently behind bars.

Abdel-Fattah was a leading figure in the 2011 revolution, mobilising young people in the uprising that unseated long-time autocrat Hosni Mubarak. He is also the son of the late renowned human rights lawyer Ahmed Seif dubbed "the advocate the poor's advocate." 

Over the past decade, Abdel-Fattah's incarceration has been met with international outcry with several attempts to secure his early release all reaching nowhere.

In 2022, Abdel-Fattah went on a hunger strike for nearly six months over his imprisonment conditions, escalating his protest by refusing to drink water during the COP27 UN climate summit in November of the same year.

Activists, meanwhile, took to social media, calling on the British government, to negotiate Abdel-Fattah's release with Egypt.

Celebrated British actor and activist Khalid Abdallah, born to Egyptian parents, called on the UK to ensure that Abdel-Fattah walks free on 29 September.

Abdel-Fattah's family vowed to continue their pursuit to gain his legal rights and, eventually, him free.

"Alaa spent almost 10 years and a half of his life between prisons and parole. He is about to finish five years behind bars following a rather exceptionally absurd trial. It is time for him to be free," Soueif, the aunt, said emphatically.