Cairo (AFP) - Prominent Egyptian-British human rights defender Alaa Abdel Fattah was released from prison after years behind bars and reunited with his family in an emotional celebration following a long-awaited pardon by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

A key figure in Egypt’s 2011 uprising, Abdel Fattah, 43, was released after years of advocacy efforts by family members, rights groups and the British government, with his mother, Laila Soueif, going on hunger strike.

At the family home in Cairo, celebrations went on into Tuesday, with Abdel Fattah smiling and jumping for joy as he embraced his mother, sister and friends.

“I still can’t believe it and I can’t grasp that Alaa is with us, so I’ll need some time to absorb it,” said his sister Sanaa Seif, herself a former political prisoner.

“I told my friend that life has returned to us,” she added.

Abdel Fattah had been held at Wadi al-Natrun prison, roughly 80 kilometres (50 miles) from Cairo.

Following the announcement of Sisi’s pardon on Monday, Abdel Fattah’s family had rushed there, only to discover he was already home.

“Alaa is free” and “Home” read the captions on photos posted by relatives.

Abdel Fattah had opposed every Egyptian administration since the early 2000s, when activists in the country started using social media to express dissent.

He was last arrested in 2019 after sharing a Facebook post about police violence and sentenced in 2021 to five years in prison for “spreading false news” – a charge frequently brought against dissidents in Egypt.

“I hope this will mark the end of our difficulties and that Alaa will be allowed to travel and reunite with his son,” Seif said. “I never wish for anyone else to go through what we went through.”

According to the family, it remains unclear whether Abdel Fattah will be permitted to travel.

In July, a Cairo criminal court removed Abdel Fattah from the country’s list of terror suspects, ruling that recent investigations showed no evidence linking him to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group.

While his removal from the list should automatically lift the associated travel ban, he could still be blocked from leaving the country under a separate order.

On Tuesday, media rights watchdog Reporters without Borders said that Abdel Fattah’s release “must mark a definitive end to their (the family’s) ordeal.”

“After so many lost years, he must be allowed to travel freely to the United Kingdom.”

- ‘Grateful’ -

The British government had repeatedly raised Abdel Fattah’s case with Egyptian authorities, including in talks between Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Sisi.

British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper welcomed the pardon, writing on X that she was “grateful to President Sisi for this decision”.

“We look forward to Alaa being able to return to the UK, to be reunited with his family,” she wrote.

Abdel Fattah was granted British citizenship in 2022 while he was behind bars through his mother.

Earlier this month, Sisi had ordered authorities to study a petition submitted by the state-affiliated National Council for Human Rights to pardon a number of detainees, including Abdel Fattah.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) described the pardon as “long overdue good news”.

“Though we celebrate his pardon, thousands of people like Alaa are still languishing in Egyptian jails simply for exercising their rights to freedom of speech,” said HRW’s senior Middle East and North Africa researcher, Amr Magdi.

“Hopefully his release will act as a watershed moment and provide an opportunity for Sisi’s government to end the wrongful detention of thousands of peaceful critics.”

Activist Ahmed Douma, himself a former detainee, told AFP that the pardon is “an important and necessary step, but Alaa should never have been in prison in the first place”.

In May, a United Nations panel of experts determined that Abdel Fattah’s detention was arbitrary and illegal, and called for his immediate release.

Last month, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk also urged the Egyptian authorities to end a practice allowing the prolonged arbitrary detention of government critics.

The practice, known as “rotation”, often involves lodging new charges against detainees just before their remand period ends.

Turk said the practice “appears to be used to circumvent the rights of individuals to liberty, due process and equality before the law”.

Since 2022, Sisi’s administration has released hundreds of detainees and pardoned several high-profile dissidents, including Abdel Fattah’s lawyer Mohamed al-Baqer.

Hundreds of activists and opposition politicians remain behind bars.