Prominent Egyptian activist released from prison after 5 years

A prominent Egyptian activist has been released from prison after serving a five-year sentence for organizing an illegal protest, his family says.

The terms of his release, however, require that the report to a police station every day for the next five years.

Alaa Abdel-Fattah rose to prominence with the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings that swept the Middle East and in Egypt, toppled long-time President Hosni Mubarak. To many, his imprisonment three years later — at a time when authorities imposed draconian laws banning public gatherings and unauthorized demonstrations — was another sign of Egypt’s return to autocratic rule.

Abdel-Fattah’s sisters, Mona and Sanaa Seif, posted on Facebook that “Alaa is out,” along with a video of him at home, playing with a dog. His lawyer, Khaled Ali, confirmed the release by posting: “Thank God, Alaa Abdel-Fattah at home.”

Facebook pages set up in support of Abdel-Fattah, including “Free Alaa,” posted videos for him grinning, hugging and shaking hands with friends as he walked out of a police station in Cairo. In the background, women were ululating.

Photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zaid, popularly known as “Shawkan,” who was released earlier this month also after a five-year term, has to spend the nights at the police station for the next five years. He is also prohibited from managing his financial assets and property for the duration of those five years — measures that Amnesty International has called “outrageous.”

It’s unclear to what extent that part of Abdel-Fattah’s sentence will be carried out.

An outspoken dissident, Abdel-Fattah was detained several times before under different governments for lobbying for civil rights on social media and in public. An influential blogger, he hails from a family of political activists, lawyers, and writers. His late father was one of Egypt’s most tireless rights lawyers, his sisters are also political activists and his aunt is award-winning novelist Ahdaf Soueif.

“We’re overwhelmed with joy that he is out and amongst us, but I also feel how wrong it is that he spent five years unjustly in prison,” the novelist told The Associated Press over the phone from London.

“We are heartened by the amount of joy his release has generated across the world,” she added. “We hold everyone who is still unjustly in prison, everyone who’s been disappeared, very much in our hearts and thoughts.”

But Abdel-Fattah’s five-year sentence was his longest prison term. He was convicted for taking part in a peaceful demonstration following the military’s ouster in July 2013 of Egypt’s freely elected but controversial Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.