Egypt refuses to free jailed activist Alaa Abdel Fattah: sister

CAIRO: Egyptian authorities have refused to release dissident Alaa Abdel Fattah despite serving out his five-year sentence, his sister said on Sunday.

Abdel Fattah, 42, was arrested on September 29, 2019. Just over two years later, he was handed a five-year sentence for “spreading false news” by sharing a Facebook post about police brutality.

His family on Thursday urged the government of Britain, where Abdel Fattah holds citizenship, to ensure his release this weekend.

But on Sunday his sister Mona Seif said in a video posted to social media that the authorities “refused a request” to consider the two years of pre-trial detention as time served towards his sentence.

She said the authorities are instead counting his sentence as having started from the date that it was ratified, and has thereby set the date of his release for January 2027.

Seif had told reporters in London on Thursday that “if he is not out by September 29, it is an open-ended sentence”.