Egypt: Activist Sanaa Seif released after 18 months in prison

Egyptian authorities released the prominent activist Sanaa Seif on Thursday after serving a prison term of 18 months, her family announced.

Seif, 28, a human rights advocate and film editor, was abducted outside the prosecutor-general's office in Cairo on 23 June 2020. At the time, she was seeking to lodge an official complaint about being attacked the previous day while camping outside Tora prison, where her brother Alaa Abdel Fattah is being held. 

After her arrest, she was held in pre-trial detention at the Qanater women's prison and a court in March sentenced her to one and half years of jail time on charges of "spreading false news related to the Covid-19 pandemic" and "using a Facebook account to terrorise people". 

Her release is rare good news for the Seif family. On Monday, a court sentenced her brother Alaa Abdel Fattah, a left-wing political activist, to five years in prison, prompting condemnations from rights groups and governments worldwide.

Seif's sister Mona tweeted the news of her release and published a photo of them walking together in a Cairo street, writing: "Sanaa on the asphalt," a term used by Egyptians to refer to being recently freed from unjust detention.

Mona tweeted earlier that the family had to go through a strict procedure at a police station to finalise Sanaa's release papers.

Translation: Sanaa on the asphalt 

Since President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi came to power following a 2013 coup, Seif had been detained on two other occasions.

She was first detained from June 2014 to September 2015 for taking part in "unlawful protests", and was held for another six months in 2016 on charges of "insulting the judiciary".

Seif and her family have been among the most well-known Arab Spring activists in Egypt since the revolution that ousted longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011. 

Her arrest in 2020 has been denounced by dozens of international public figures, including Hollywood actors Danny Glover, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Thandie Newton, who signed a joint statement in August calling on Egypt to release her.