00:00After nearly 12 years behind bars, one of Egypt's most prominent pro-democracy voices is finally free.
00:08Alaa Abdel Fattah, the Egyptian-British activist known for his role in the 2011 Arab Spring,
00:14walked out of Wadi Nachron prison late Monday after receiving a presidential pardon.
00:21His release was confirmed by his family and campaign team.
00:24On social media, his sister shared a powerful image of the activist smiling beside their mother and sister back home in Cairo
00:32with the caption,
00:34He's home.
00:35We were waiting outside the prison and he arrived.
00:39Al-Fattah was first jailed in 2014 for participating in an unauthorized protest and allegedly assaulting a police officer.
00:48He was briefly released in 2019 but arrested again during a crackdown following rare anti-government protests.
00:56He has since become a symbol of Egypt's shrinking democratic space.
01:00This week, Egypt's National Council for Human Rights urged President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to grant pardons on humanitarian and health grounds.
01:10Al-Fattah and five others were released.
01:12Analysts say over the past decade, Egypt has seen the collapse of its brief democratic experiment
01:18and a return to authoritarian rule under the leadership of Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
01:24The National Council for Human Rights
01:29ofMK
01:33The National Council for Human Rights
01:39ofArgel Fattah al-FS
01:44of Trump
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