(23 Sep 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Cairo, Egypt – 23 September 2025
1. Various of released pro-democracy activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah hugging friends and relatives at home
2. Various of Abd el-Fattah sitting with his mother Laila Suief
3. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Laila Suief, mother of released activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah:
"Now, everyone has their own individual plan. Alaa will rest first and might then want to go to the UK to sort things there for his son’s sake. (His sister) Mona already has things settled there and (his other sister) Sanaa will have her own career plan. As for me, I’m going back to my regular life as a faculty teaching member living in Egypt and expressing opposition against the government when I see something wrong."
4. Mid of Abd el-Fattah sitting with his mother
5. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Laila Suief, mother of released activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah:
"The joy will not be truly complete unless the other detainees’ case (are resolved). They are treated unjustly, regardless of the form of injustice, because the charges are ridiculous and the trials are farcical, and the conditions in the prisons are very bad. The true joy that will put the heart at ease will not be until there is a solution."
6. Mid of released Abd el-Fattah sitting with his mother
7. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Laila Suief, mother of released activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah:
"Because of previous experiences around that, I only believe news of releases once the person is actually out on the ground."
8. Wide of Abd el-Fattah talking with his mother, sister Sanaa Sief and a friend
9. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Sanaa Sief, sister of released activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah:
"I wish I can distance myself from politics. I’ve decided that once Alaa is out that I need a break, but I still feel for the people left behind in jail."
10. Wide of Abd el-Fattah talking with his mother, sister Sanaa Sief and a friend
11. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Sanaa Sief, sister of released activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah:
"I really hope that we’re safe this time because the last time he was released, we also had a joyous atmosphere, and we felt happiness and relief at the time, and we were robbed of it shortly afterwards. I’m scared to believe that he’s released."
12. Abd el-Fattah talking with his mother and sister Sanaa
STORYLINE:
The downtown Cairo apartment of Alaa Abd el-Fattah was filled with laughter and joy Tuesday as family and friends gathered to absorb the long-awaited news: the pro-democracy Egyptian-British activist had finally walked free.
Abd el-Fattah was pardoned by President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and released Monday after spending almost all the past 12 years in prison.
He and five other prisoners had been pardoned after the National Council for Human Rights acted on behalf of their families, urging the president to consider their situations on humanitarian grounds.
"I really hope that we’re safe this time because the last time he was released…we were robbed of it shortly afterwards. I’m scared to believe that he’s released," Abd el-Fattah’s sister, Sanaa Seif, told The Associated Press at the family apartment. She is one of the family members who waged an international campaign for his release.
She was walking her dog when the news broke that her brother had been pardoned. As her phone rang nonstop with calls and notifications, she and her family drove to Wadi Natroun prison, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) outside Cairo, to pick him up, only to get a call from a neighbor’s phone: it was Abd el-Fattah himself, telling them he had already arrived at the family’s house.
AP Video by Mohamed Wagdy
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