{"id":37953,"date":"2019-03-29T14:24:08","date_gmt":"2019-03-29T14:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=37953"},"modified":"2019-03-29T14:24:08","modified_gmt":"2019-03-29T14:24:08","slug":"egyptian-rights-activist-abdel-fattah-freed-after-5-years-in-jail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=37953","title":{"rendered":"Egyptian rights activist Abdel Fattah freed after 5 years in jail"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Alaa Abdel Fattah<\/a>, a\u00a0leading pro-democracy activist in Egypt, has been released from prison after serving a five-year sentence for inciting and taking part in protests, according to his family and lawyer.<\/p>\n

The influential blogger and software engineer was a leading voice amongst the young Egyptians who initially led the 2011 uprising that ended the 30-year rule of\u00a0President Hosni Mubarak<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Alaa got out,” his sister, Mona Seif, wrote on Facebook and Twitter on Friday. His other sister, Sanaa Seif, posted a video on Facebook of Abdel Fattah playing with a dog.\u00a0<\/p>\n

His lawyer, Khaled Ali, confirmed the release by posting on Facebook: “Thanks God, Alaa Abdel-Fattah at home.”<\/p>\n

\n

\u0627\u0644\u0644\u0642\u0627\u0621 \u0627\u0644\u0623\u0648\u0644
\u0639\u0644\u0627\u0621 \u0648\u062a\u0648\u0643\u0629
\ud83d\udc93 pic.twitter.com\/mjkugrqrR3<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Mona Seif (@Monasosh) March 29, 2019<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Translation: First meeting, Alaa and Toka<\/em><\/p>\n

Facebook pages set up in support of Abdel Fattah posted videos of him grinning, hugging and shaking hands with friends as he walked out of a police station in Cairo. In the background, women were ululating.<\/p>\n

His release from the notorious Tora prison will not bring him complete freedom. As part of his parole, Abdel Fattah must sleep every night at a local police station for the next five years and will be under police surveillance.<\/p>\n

Government crackdown<\/h2>\n

Abdel Fattah was\u00a0arrested in November 2013<\/a>\u00a0and eventually sentenced to five years in prison in a trial that lasted more than a year.<\/p>\n

He was charged with organising an illegal protest against military trials and assaulting a police officer. The court discounted evidence, including mobile phone records, which showed that Abdel Fattah was not at the protest.<\/p>\n

The influential blogger hails from a family of political activists, lawyers, and writers – his late father was one of Egypt’s most tireless rights lawyers; his sisters and mother are also political activists; and his aunt is award-winning novelist Ahdaf Soueif.<\/p>\n

An outspoken dissident, Abdel Fattah had also been\u00a0convicted for taking part in a peaceful demonstration following the military’s removal in July 2013 of\u00a0<\/span>Egypt’s first elected President\u00a0<\/span>Mohamed Morsi<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

After Morsi was overthrown, Egypt’s military-backed transitional authorities waged a heavy crackdown on his supporters who had rallied against Morsi’s removal. One sit-in by protesters in Cairo in August 2013 was broken up by security forces in an operation that left hundreds dead.<\/p>\n

Within weeks, the government also went after secular and liberal activists who opposed a newly introduced law banning street protests without prior permission from authorities. The new law required participants to formally ask the interior ministry for permission to hold a rally three days in advance. It also set prison terms and high fines for violators.<\/p>\n

The demonstration that led to Abdel Fattah’s arrest and sentencing was in protest against trials of civilians before military tribunals, known for their swift and harsh rulings.<\/p>\n

Security forces raided his house after the protest, beat up his wife and confiscated his laptops but he was not there. He later turned himself in.<\/p>\n

“I don’t deny the charge,” he wrote in a statement released at the time. “It’s an honour to hold responsibility for people’s rallies in defiance of legalising the return of” the rule of Mubarak.<\/p>\n

During his imprisonment in 2014, Abdel Fattah’s father, Ahmed Seif, the well-known and celebrated civil rights activist, passed away.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\n SOURCE:
\n Al Jazeera and news agencies<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alaa Abdel Fattah, a\u00a0leading pro-democracy activist in Egypt, has been released from prison after serving a five-year sentence for inciting and taking part in protests, according to his family and lawyer. The influential blogger and software engineer was a leading voice amongst the young Egyptians who initially led the 2011 uprising that ended the 30-year…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":37954,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}