Abdel Fattah Remains Imprisoned Beyond His Five-Year Sentence

Alaa Abdel Fattah, the British-Egyptian writer and activist, should have been released on September 29 after serving an unjust five-year prison sentence. Instead, Egyptian authorities have kept him imprisoned, refusing to count over two years he spent in pretrial detention toward his time served. After spending most of the last decade behind bars, authorities told his lawyer he won't reunite with his family until 2027.

Abdel Fattah rose to prominence during Egypt's 2011 Arab uprisings and has been imprisoned more or less continuously since 2014. In 2015, an Egyptian court sentenced him to five years in prison for his participation in the protests. Just six months after being conditionally released, he was rearrested in September 2019 during a widespread crackdown and held in pretrial detention for more than two years, exceeding the maximum length permitted under Egyptian law. In December 2021, a court handed him another five-year prison sentence for "spreading false news." Eleven United Nations human rights experts found that his right to a fair trial and due process had been violated.

While in prison, Abdel Fattah has faced horrific conditions. According to his family, security forces in the Tora Prison Complex subjected him to beatings, torture, and other ill-treatment while he was held there in 2019. He has since been transferred, but Amnesty International found that prison authorities have denied him access to fresh air and sunlight for the past five years and continue to deny him access to his lawyer and consular visits. Human Rights Watch has previously documented dire conditions in Egypt's prisons, including denial of health care and deaths in custody.

Abdel Fattah's continued detention is a flagrant violation of his human rights, not to mention Egypt's own Criminal Procedure Code, which requires that time served in pretrial detention count toward a prison sentence. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called for his immediate release back in 2022. Last month, a coalition of 59 Egyptian and international civil society organizations also called for his immediate and unconditional release.

Authorities have already robbed Abdel Fattah of a decade of his life. Adding another two years to his sentence is unspeakably cruel. They should release him without further delay.

Bassam Khawaja, Deputy Director, Middle East and North Africa Division