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Arab Spring activist Alaa Abdel Fattah released after pardon from Egypt’s Sisi
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The Washington Post
CAIRO — Egyptian President Abdel Fatah El-Sisi pardoned the country’s highest-profile political prisoner, the British Egyptian computer programmer and Arab Spring activist Alaa Abdel Fattah, on Monday.
The move brought a swift end to a yearslong saga that had tormented Abdel Fattah’s family and caused diplomatic tensions between Cairo and London.
Advertisement AdvertisementAdvertisement Advertisement“My heart is going to stop,” Abdel Fattah’s sister Mona Seif wrote on X as the news broke.
Abdel Fattah became a symbol of the 2011 uprising that ousted Egypt’s authoritarian leader, Hosni Mubarak, and led to similar revolts across the region.
Advertisement AdvertisementBritish Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper welcomed the news of Abdel Fattah’s pardon in a statement posted on X.
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