Egypt lifts travel ban on activist Alaa Abdel Fattah

Egypt's attorney general lifted a travel ban on prominent Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abdel Fattah, his lawyer Khaled Ali told AFP on Saturday, following a request submitted on his behalf.

A key figure in Egypt's 2011 uprising, the 44-year-old was granted a presidential pardon and released in September after nearly a decade in prison.

His release followed years of advocacy efforts by his family, rights groups and the British government, with his mother, Laila Soueif, going on hunger strike.

Despite the pardon, the Egyptian authorities stopped Abdel Fattah from travelling at Cairo airport last month as he prepared to fly to Britain, his sister Sanaa Seif said.

He was due to receive the 2025 Magnitsky Award for "Courage Under Fire", awarded jointly to him and his mother.

Abdel Fattah has opposed every Egyptian administration since the early 2000s, when activists in the country started using social media to express dissent.

He was last arrested in 2019 after sharing a Facebook post about police violence and sentenced in 2021 to five years in prison for "spreading false news" -- a charge frequently brought against dissidents in Egypt.

Two months before his release, a Cairo criminal court removed Abdel Fattah's name from the list of terror suspects, following investigations that found he no longer had any ties to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.

Egypt has long faced criticism over its human rights record. While several activists have been released in recent years, human rights groups estimate that tens of thousands of political prisoners remain in detention -- claims which the authorities deny.