Freed British-Egyptian activist not allowed to fly to UK, family says

British-Egyptian pro-democracy activist Alaa Abdel Fattah was banned from traveling to the UK by Egyptian passport control authorities earlier this week, his family said.

Abdel Fattah (43 years old) was the most famous political prisoner in Egypt until seven weeks ago, when he was released from prison after obtaining a pardon from President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.

He tried to travel to London on Tuesday with his sister Sanaa, but officials at Cairo International Airport told him that he was not allowed to travel.

“They prevented him from boarding the plane and I had to go alone,” Sanaa told the BBC’s Today program on Friday. There was no immediate comment from the Egyptian government.

Sanaa said: “They did not explain much. Our lawyers in Egypt are trying to understand the legal foundations.”

She added that her brother carried his British passport in addition to an Egyptian passport that had been recently renewed.

“I assumed after renewing the Egyptian passport that he would be allowed to do so.”

Alaa Abdel Fattah’s 13-year-old son, Khaled, lives with his mother in Brighton, where he goes to a special needs school because he is on the autism spectrum.

Khaled spent a month visiting his father in Cairo after his release from prison, but has now returned to the UK.

“We’re really happy about that [Alaa] “He has returned to our lives with partial freedom, but he needs freedom of movement to live with his son and be reunited with him properly,” Ms. Saif said.

She added: “Khaled needs his father. My nephew… feels very comfortable in his school and his environment in Brighton. We cannot change. We cannot continue to create instability.”

Ms Saif said the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office was liaising with her family about the issue, but called on Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s office to also give the issue their attention.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement: “President Sisi’s decision to pardon and release Alaa Abdel Fattah was very welcome news and an important step forward.”

“We continue to press for his urgent return to the UK at the highest levels with the Egyptian government so that he can be reunited with his family. This issue remains a priority issue for the UK government.”

On Thursday evening, Alaa Abdel Fattah and his mother received the 2025 Magnitsky Award for the film “Courage Under Fire.” Sanaa was to receive the award on their behalf.

Abdel Fattah rose to prominence during the 2011 uprising in Egypt, which forced President Hosni Mubarak to resign.

He spent most of his time in prison after 2014, a year after Sisi led the military’s ouster of Egypt’s first democratically elected president, Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Morsi, following anti-government protests.

While in power, Sisi oversaw what human rights groups say was an unprecedented crackdown on dissent that led to the arrests of thousands of people.

In 2015, the court sentenced Mr. Abdel Fattah to five years in prison on charges of participating in an unauthorized protest.

In September 2019, just six months after being released on probation, he was arrested again and held in pretrial detention for more than two years.

He was convicted in December 2021 of “spreading fake news” for sharing a post about a prisoner’s death under torture, and was sentenced to another five years in prison after a trial that human rights groups said was grossly unfair.

His mother, Laila (68 years old), began a hunger strike for 287 days last September 2024 to protest his imprisonment. She lost more than 40% of her original body weight and was hospitalized twice in London.