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"Amazing News": Egypt Pardons Activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah
As we broadcast today, Egyptian authorities announced a presidential pardon for Alaa Abd El-Fattah, a free speech and democracy activist imprisoned for six years on dubious charges of "spreading false news." The blogger was a leading voice in the 2011 Arab Spring protests that toppled the Mubarak dictatorship, and was repeatedly targeted by the current authoritarian government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Monday's pardon comes after years of international pressure to "Free Alaa," including in the United Kingdom, where he also holds citizenship.
"We might feel lonely and isolated and cold and wet and hungry when we're on the streets demonstrating," says Jeremy Corbyn, a member of British Parliament and former leader of the U.K. Labour Party who has supported freedom for El-Fattah, who has joint Egyptian-British citizenship, and met with his family members. "It makes a difference, and his freedom is a product of all that solidarity all around the world."