President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi ordered authorities to review a clemency plea filed on Monday by the National Council for Human Rights (NCHR). The request seeks the release of seven detainees, among them prominent political prisoner Alaa Abdel Fattah.
Sisi's move on Tuesday follows a rare public appeal by the NCHR urging the president to issue a humanitarian pardon for a group of prisoners whose families face “exceptional personal and health circumstances.”
In a statement, the council said it had received and reviewed several petitions from families requesting the release of relatives currently serving prison terms. “Based on our constitutional and legal mandate, and Your Excellency’s consistent paternal concern for humanitarian cases, we ask you to exercise your presidential power to issue pardons,” the council wrote.
The list submitted for consideration includes: Alaa Ahmed Seif El-Islam Abdel Fattah, Said Magli El-Daw Aliwa, Karam Abdel-Samei Ismail El-Saadani, Walaa Gamal Saad Mohamed, Mohamed Awad Abdo Mohamed, Mohamed Abdel-Khaleq Abdel-Aziz Abdel-Latif, and Mansour Abdel-Gaber Ali Abdel-Razek.
The statement emphasized that such an act of clemency would deliver a “morale boost of the highest importance” to families enduring emotional and psychological strain in the absence of their loved ones.
The announcement comes amid renewed fears for Alaa’s health. He resumed a full hunger strike on Sept. 1, drinking only water. His mother says prison officials promised release but failed to act. He remains behind bars, furious and weak, nearly a year past his sentence’s end.
Alaa was arrested on Sept. 28, 2019 and sentenced to five years in December 2021 by an Emergency State Security Court. He was expected to be freed in September 2024, but authorities reset the sentence from Jan. 3, 2022, the date of military ratification, extending his detention without appeal.
