A coalition of 59 Egyptian and international civil society organizations on Thursday called for the promised release of Egypt’s most prominent political activist, Alaa Abdel Fattah, as his five-year prison sentence comes to an end on September 29. Despite his scheduled release, concerns have mounted after his lawyer revealed that Egyptian authorities might extend his detention until 2027.

The organizations expressed concern that authorities plan to disregard Egyptian law, which mandates that pretrial detention periods be deducted when multiple cases exist. According to Abdel Fattah’s lawyer, Khaled Ali, authorities are manipulating the legal system by refusing to count the two years he spent in pretrial detention from 2019 to 2021 as part of his sentence. Instead, the authorities argue that this period is tied to an earlier terrorism investigation, which was never acted upon. Ali highlighted that Abdel Fattah’s sister, Sanaa Seif, who had faced similar charges, was released after her pretrial detention was counted toward her sentence. According to Ali, this raises questions regarding unequal treatment.

The civil society organizations urged Egypt’s international partners, including the UK government, to pressure the Egyptian regime to release Abdel Fattah in compliance with national laws. Abdel Fattah’s sisters, Sanaa and Mona Seif, have been leading the campaign for his release, calling each day he remains in detention “a grave atrocity on top of everything else he has had to endure.”

Egypt Researcher at Amnesty International Mahmoud Shalaby said, “Alaa Abdel Fattah has endured nearly a decade of unjust imprisonment for peacefully exercising his human rights. Extending his detention would be another cruel injustice.” Shalaby added that Egyptian authorities have a history of arbitrarily detaining political prisoners by bringing new charges to prolong their imprisonment.

Alaa Abdel Fattah is an Egyptian-British writer and outspoken critic of the Egyptian regime. He was first imprisoned in 2014 for participating in a protest and was later rearrested in 2019 during a crackdown following rare anti-government protests. In December 2021, he was sentenced to five years for “spreading false news” after a trial that experts called grossly unfair.