British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah was prevented from travelling to the United Kingdom by Egyptian passport control earlier this week, his family has said. He had been scheduled to fly to London to attend human rights conferences, including the Magnitsky awards ceremony.
Abd el-Fattah was pardoned by President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi in September after more than a decade in prison, but his right to travel between Britain and Egypt remains unresolved. He attempted to fly with his sister, Sanaa Seif, from Cairo International Airport on Tuesday but was told he was not allowed to leave the country.
Speaking at the Magnitsky awards in London, where the Courage Under Fire award was presented to Abd el-Fattah and his mother Laila Soueif, 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... and he was stopped by Egyptian authorities at passport control.”
Abd el-Fattah had been imprisoned for sharing a Facebook post about torture in Egypt, which was deemed “spreading fake news”. His mother Soueif conducted a 287-day hunger strike to demand his release, ending it in July 2025 after coming close to death twice. Abd el-Fattah’s 13-year-old son Khaled, who has special educational needs, lives in Brighton.
