Egyptian authorities have refused to release activist Alaa Abdel Fattah despite completing his five-year sentence, according to his sister, Mona Seif, said on Sunday.
42-year-old Abdel Fattah was arrested on September 29, 2019. After more than two years, he was given a five-year sentence for “spreading false news” by sharing a Facebook post about police brutality.
His family had urged the UK government, as Abdel Fattah holds British citizenship, to secure his release this weekend. However, his sister stated on Sunday in a video posted on social media that the authorities “refused a request” to consider the two years of pre-trial detention as time served towards his sentence.
She mentioned that the authorities are instead starting his sentence from the date it was confirmed, setting his release date for January 2027.
Seif had informed reporters in London on Thursday that “if he is not out by September 29, it is an open-ended sentence”. A writer and computer programmer, Abdel Fattah has spent over a decade behind bars, having been imprisoned multiple times under different presidents since Egypt’s 2011 uprising.
Alaa Abdel Fattah obtained UK citizenship through his British-born mother in 2022 while in prison.
Rights groups claim there are tens of thousands of political prisoners in Egypt, kept under harsh conditions and subjected to mistreatment and abuses by the authorities.