Alaa Abdel Fattah returns to Britain

Egyptian-British human rights activist Alaa Abdel Fattah, who was released in September after spending several years in prison, returned to the United Kingdom on Friday after Egypt’s Prosecutor General lifted a travel ban against him.

A prominent figure of the 2011 revolution that toppled Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak, Abdel Fattah received a presidential pardon in September after spending most of the past decade behind bars. His case had long been championed by his family, human rights organizations, and the British government. He acquired British citizenship while in prison in 2022 through his mother, mathematician Laila Soueif — a leading figure of Egypt’s intellectual left — who herself became a naturalized citizen and undertook a five-month hunger strike to campaign for his release.

“I can’t believe this has finally happened, and that Alaa is in the United Kingdom,” his sister Mona Seif said in a statement. She had previously noted that, despite the pardon granted by President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, Egyptian authorities initially prevented Abdel Fattah from reaching Cairo airport as he prepared to depart for Britain.

He is expected to soon reunite with his 14-year-old son, Khaled, who lives with his mother in Brighton, southern England, and attends a specialized school due to autism, according to the family.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was delighted by Abdel Fattah’s return to the UK, noting that his case had been a government priority. He paid tribute “to all those who worked and campaigned for this moment,” and expressed gratitude to President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi for granting the pardon.

Abdel Fattah first emerged as a critic of the Egyptian authorities in the early 2000s, as activists began expressing dissent on social media. He was most recently arrested in 2019 for a Facebook post about police violence, and in 2021 was sentenced to five years in prison for “spreading false information,” a charge frequently used in Egypt against government critics.

Two months before his release, a Cairo court removed Abdel Fattah’s name from the terrorism watch list after an investigation determined he had no links to the Muslim Brotherhood.

While several activists have been freed in recent years, human rights groups say tens of thousands of political prisoners remain behind bars — allegations that Egyptian authorities deny.