00:00He's spent the best part of the past decade behind bars.
00:04But Egypt has now released a well-known activist and leading member of the pro-democracy April 6 rights movement
00:10that helped to prompt the nation's uprising in 2011.
00:14According to his lawyer, Sharif al-Ruby was among several activists freed on Monday,
00:18a move he called, I quote, a positive development in respect for rights and freedoms.
00:24Al-Ruby was first detained in 2016 on fake news and terrorism charges.
00:30When the country's president re-established the pardons committee four years ago,
00:34al-Ruby was one of a string of high-profile releasers.
00:37It was a move portrayed by the government as an overture towards its opposition.
00:42However, authorities detained al-Ruby three months later, and he then remained in pre-trial detention.
00:48The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights alleges he was subjected to medical negligence during his time in prison.
00:55Cairo has long come under fire for its human rights record,
00:58including detaining what activists refer to as political prisoners.
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