Washington DC [US], December 22: A travel ban has been lifted on pro-democracy Egyptian activist Alaa Abdel-Fattah following his pardon and release from prison last month, meaning the 43-year-old will now be allowed to leave Egypt, his lawyer Khaled Ali said on Sunday.
Abdel-Fattah was stopped at Cairo airport last month as he was about to fly to London, where his family lives.
A key figure in Egypt's 2011 uprising that brought down the government of late Egyptian president Hosny Mubarak, he was expected to be released from prison after his sentence ended in September 2024. But he remained in custody until an unexpected pardon issued by President Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi in September.
He was detained in 2013 during a protest against more stringent legislation curbing the right to demonstrate. His family says the allegations made against him of disseminating fake news as politically motivated.
Abdel-Fattah has been a British citizen, through his mother, since 2021, but this is not recognized by Egypt.
According to human rights activists, the Egyptian authorities regularly use travel bans and the freezing of assets to pressure government critics. As the measures are not announced, they cannot be challenged in the courts. The practice effectively turns Egypt into an open-air prison, they say.
Source: Qatar Tribune