Rofeida Hamdy, wife of April 6 Youth Movement co-founder Mohamed Adel, has called for his immediate release from prison following President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi’s pardon of prominent political prisoner Alaa Abdel Fattah. Adel, she noted, has completed his sentence but remains detained.
“I’m asking for equality—for us, and for everyone in our position,” Rofeida told Al Manassa. “Mohamed has spent nearly 12 years behind bars, just like Alaa. He, too, has served his sentence. Neither Mohamed, nor Alaa, nor anyone else should ever have been imprisoned for their opinions.”
Abdel Fattah was released early Tuesday after a presidential decree pardoned the remainder of his sentence. The pardon followed a petition submitted by the National Council for Human Rights earlier this month.
Rofeida told Al Manassa she had received repeated informal assurances that her husband might be included in the latest pardon list, but those promises went unfulfilled.
“Like every time, they make promises they don’t keep,” she said.
“I wasn’t hopeful that Mohamed would be freed at the same time as Alaa,” she added. “The usual pattern is to release only one high-profile prisoner per list. That’s just how things go.”
Rofeida also spoke of the emotional and physical toll Adel’s imprisonment has taken on their family.
“I’m getting older and I can’t have children. Mohamed’s parents are elderly and in poor health. They need their son.”
Still, she expressed hope that Abd El-Fattah’s release would not be a one-off gesture. “I hope this is the beginning—not just the release of one person followed by silence for another two or three years. I hope Mohamed is next, along with many others. There are so many people who deserve a pardon,” she added.
Adel was detained in December 2018 while reporting to Aga Police Station in Dakahlia as part of his probationary sentence for “protesting without a permit.” He was sentenced to three years in prison, followed by three years of police surveillance.
Two days after his arrest, he was charged in a new case (No. 5606/2018) with “joining a terrorist group and spreading false news,” based on his public criticism of IMF policies, government debt reliance, and use of the death penalty.
He was later charged in two additional cases with the Sherbin Administrative and the Supreme State Security. Both cases included similar accusations of belonging to a terrorist group, financing terrorism, and communicating with its leadership while in detention.
In May 2025, 80 Egyptian and international human rights groups demanded Adel’s release, warning that he was being denied adequate nutrition at Gamasa Prison, where he remains held. In September 2023, his Rofeida submitted an official pardon request to the presidency.
The Administrative Court recently ruled in favor of Adel’s right to sit for his Public Law postgraduate exams at Mansoura University—a decision praised by the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights as an important affirmation of prisoners’ constitutional right to education.
