Alaa Abd El-Fattah

Alaa Ahmed Seif al Islam Abd El-Fattah (Arabic: علاء أحمد سيف الإسلام عبد الفتاح, IPA: [ʕæˈlæːʔ ˈæħmæd ˈseːf ʕæbdelfatˈtæːħ]), known professionally as Alaa Abd El-Fattah (Arabic: علاء عبد الفتاح), is an Egyptian-British blogger, software developer, and political activist. He has been active in developing Arabic-language versions of software and platforms.

After a 2006 arrest by Egyptian police, El-Fattah was released without charge 45 days later. He was subsequently imprisoned in Egypt for organising a political protest without requesting authorisation, and released on bail on 23 March 2014. He was rearrested and ordered released on bail again on 15 September 2014, receiving a five-year sentence in February 2015, from which he was released in late March 2019. On 29 September 2019, during the 2019 Egyptian protests, Abd El-Fattah was re-arrested by the National Security Agency and taken to State Security Prosecution on unknown charges. He was subsequently convicted of "spreading fake news" and jailed for five years. In April 2022, he began a hunger strike. His family claims that his sentence should have ended on 29 September 2024 but the Egyptian authorities refused to free him, as the release date had been appointed in January 2027, based on the court’s decision not to include his served pretrial detention.

On 30 September 2024, Abd El-Fattah's mother, Laila Soueif, began a hunger strike outside the British Foreign Office in London, remaining on strike as of 25 January 2025, when she was joined by Australian journalist Peter Greste. In October 2024, Abd El-Fattah was named by Arundhati Roy, winner of the 2024 PEN Pinter Prize awarded by English PEN, as the "Writer of Courage" with whom she chose to share the prize.