Alaa Abdel Fattah’s family say they have officially requested a presidential pardon

Mona Seif, the sister of Egyptian-British political detainee Alaa Abdel Fattah, in danger of death after seven months of hunger strike, announced that she had officially requested a presidential pardon for her release on Friday.

“I already submitted a request in June, and today I submitted a new one to reaffirm my commitment to any legal avenue to settle my brother’s fate,” she tweeted. while, since April, Egypt has reactivated its presidential pardons commission, dormant for several years, and has already released 766 political detainees, according to Amnesty International. The NGO adds, however, that during these seven months, 1,540 other Egyptians were imprisoned for crimes of opinion.

Sentenced to five years in prison

Icon of the 2011 revolution in Egypt which ousted Hosni Mubarak from power – a popular movement denounced by Sissi – Alaa Abdel Fattah, who will turn 41 on November 18, was arrested at the end of 2019. He was sentenced to five years in prison for spreading “false information” after reposting on Facebook a text, written by another, accusing an officer of torture.

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