Egyptian authorities prevented Alaa Abd el-Fattah from attending human rights awards in London

Alaa Abd el-Fattah, the British-Egyptian writer and human rights campaigner who was freed from jail in September, was stopped from flying to the UK by Egyptian passport control, his family has said.

Abd el-Fattah was pardoned after more than 10 years in jail but his status, including his right to travel back and forth between Britain and Egypt, was left unclear and subject to discussion between the family and authorities.

He had been due to travel to the UK on Tuesday in part to attend two conferences, including the Magnitsky human rights awards in London.

Sanaa Seif, Abd el-Fattah’s sister, confirmed in a speech to the awards ceremony that her brother was stopped from flying to the UK by Egyptian passport control earlier in the week.

He attempted to fly to London with Seif on Tuesday morning but was told at Cairo international airport that he was not allowed to travel.

Abd el-Fattah was pardoned by President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi on 22 September and released from Wadi el-Natrun prison later that day, but it has not been clear whether he is able to travel to the UK to be reunited with his son, Khaled, in Brighton.

Abd el-Fattah and his mother, Laila Soueif, were on Thursday awarded the Courage Under Fire award at the Magnitsky awards. Seif collected the award on behalf of her brother and mother.

Speaking at the event, Seif said: “I wish my brother could be here tonight to accept this award. I wish he could be reunited with his son, Khaled, in Brighton.

“But on Tuesday morning we went to Cairo airport together to come to London, and he was stopped by Egyptian authorities at passport control and they refused to allow him to travel with me.”

Abd el-Fattah has conducted interviews about his experience of freedom in the British press, including the Guardian as well in the Egyptian dissident press. He had indicated he needed time to think about his future.

His son, Khaled, is 13 and lives with his mother in Brighton where he attends a special educational needs school. When Abd el-Fattah was released, Khaled visited him in Egypt, but he has returned to Brighton.

Soueif conducted a 287-day hunger strike to press for the release of her son, which she started on 29 September 2024 after Egyptian authorities failed to release him at the end of his latest five-year sentence. Abd el-Fattah had been imprisoned for “spreading fake news” after sharing a Facebook post about torture in Egypt.

Soueif ended her hunger strike on Monday 14 July 2025 after 287 days without food. During this time she was in St Thomas’ hospital in London and came close to death on two occasions, in late February and June 2025.

Source: www.theguardian.com