(NEW YORK)—The pardon of Egyptian-British writer and activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah after he spent six years in jail is a long overdue correction of a deep injustice, PEN America said today.
In the six years he was in prison, El-Fattah, who received a presidential pardon on Monday, September 22, endured solitary confinement and lack of medical care, and also went on hunger strike to protest the conditions he was being held in. He will now be able to return home to his family, including his son who was born while he was in prison.
“For more than half his adult life, Alaa has endured imprisonment, often in dire conditions, just for exercising peaceful freedom of expression,” said Summer Lopez, interim co-CEO of PEN America and chief program officer, Free Expression. “His pardoning is a long overdue correction of a deep injustice, and is an acknowledgement of the suffering he needlessly had to endure. We call for him to be released immediately and reunited with his family, and to be allowed to continue his life and work without restrictions on his speech, travel, or personal life.”
“During his detention, his family has carried this unbearable weight, especially his mother, Dr. Laila Soueif, who is still going through a painful refeeding process after a hunger strike that almost cost her her life as she advocated for her son’s release,” Lopez added.
El-Fattah is a blogger, writer, and pro-democracy activist who mobilized Egyptians during the Arab Spring in 2011. He was arrested in 2019 and was held for two years in pre-trial detention before being sentenced to five years in December 2021.
The Egyptian authorities’ refusal to count his pre-trial detention in his already unjust sentence is part of a wider pattern of the country abusing pre-trial detentions to keep human rights defenders, writers, journalists, and others in jail for indefinite and extended periods. For example, Egyptian poet and 2025 PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Awardee Galal El-Behairy has been unjustly imprisoned in Egypt since 2018 and has been held in what amounts to indefinite pre-trial detention since the end of his initial three-year sentence in 2021.
In 2024, PEN America’s Freedom to Write Index ranked Egypt the ninth leading country for the highest number of jailed writers globally, with 10 writers in prison. Egypt is among the most restrictive environments for free expression in the Middle East and North Africa. Authorities target writers, journalists, artists, and human rights defenders through repressive tactics such as surveillance, judicial harassment, smear campaigns, threats, and travel bans. Egypt must release all writers unconditionally and drop all charges against them and ensure that while detained, writers are held in humane conditions in accordance with international law.
About PEN America
PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression in the United States and worldwide. We champion the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to transform the world. Our mission is to unite writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible. Learn more at pen.org.