Alaa Abd El-Fattah Is Free: Family Celebrates Political Prisoner's Release in Egypt

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Egypt's best-known political prisoner, Alaa Abd El-Fattah, was granted a presidential pardon on Monday and has reunited with his family after spending most of the last 12 years in prison. The writer and political dissident was a leading voice in the 2011 Arab Spring protests that toppled the Mubarak dictatorship, and he has been repeatedly targeted by the current authoritarian government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Most recently, he was sentenced to five years in prison for a Facebook post. That sentence ended last September, but authorities refused to release him, saying his two years of pretrial detention did not count. Monday's pardon comes after years of international pressure to "Free Alaa," including in the United Kingdom, where he also holds citizenship. Both Alaa and his mother, Laila Soueif, participated in lengthy hunger strikes.

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