Pro-democracy Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah was released from prison late Monday after being granted a presidential pardon, according to his campaign. “An exceptionally kind day. Alaa is free,” wrote his sister Mona Seif on social media site X along with a picture of her brother smiling with his mother Laila Soueif and sister Sanaa Seif in Cairo. Sanaa Seif posted on Facebook that her brother arrived at home while they were waiting with for him in the prison outside Cairo. El-Fattah is one of the most prominent Egyptian activists in the 2011 Arab Spring uprising and his detention became emblematic of the fraying of Egypt’s democracy.