The First Terrorism Circuit of Cairo Criminal Court on Monday removed activist Alaa Abdel Fattah from Egypt’s terrorism watchlist, according to human rights lawyer Khaled Ali on Facebook.
Ali told Al Manassa the ruling came in response to a formal request from Prosecutor General Mohamed Shawki. The decision marks the end of Abdel Fattah’s five-year inclusion on the list, a penalty stemming from a 2021 conviction by the Emergency State Security Court.
Ali explained that typically in such cases, the prosecution either extends the listing for another five years or requests its removal. In Alaa’s case, they chose the latter.
The delisting voids several restrictive measures mandated by Egypt’s Terrorist Entities Law, including a travel ban, monitoring upon arrival, withdrawal or cancellation of passports, or preventing the issuance of a new passport, disqualification from public or parliamentary positions, and asset freezes.
Ali described the court’s ruling as “a positive signal and a welcome step,” adding, “We now await his release.”
Abdel Fattah was arrested on Sept. 28, 2019, and later convicted in Dec. 2021 on charges of “spreading false news, misusing social media, joining a banned group, and belonging to an illegal organization.” He was sentenced to five years in prison following more than two years in pretrial detention.
He should have been released at the end of September 2024, but according to an earlier statement from lawyer Khaled Ali, the authorities did not count the time he spent in pretrial detention. Instead, they consider the prison term to have started on Jan. 3, 2022—the date the military ruler ratified the verdict, as required for decisions from emergency courts.
Article 482 of the Criminal Procedure Code stipulates that the duration of a custodial sentence begins “from the day the convicted person is arrested based on the enforceable judgment, while taking into account the reduction of that duration by the period of pre-trial detention and the period of arrest.” Furthermore, Article 484 of the same law states that “the period of pre-trial detention shall be deducted, when there are multiple custodial sentences imposed on the defendant, from the lightest sentence first.”
Abdel Fattah’s mother, academic Laila Soueif, began a hunger strike in late September 2024—the day her son was expected to be released. She later moved to a partial strike in March 2025 after receiving promises of a resolution, but resumed a full hunger strike in May when no progress materialized. She ended the strike on Monday, July 14.
