Egypt’s authoritarian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has pardoned nearly three dozen political prisoners, including a leader of the Arab Spring uprising that ousted then-President Hosni Mubarak in 2011. Ahmed Douma was freed Saturday from the notorious Badr prison after nearly a decade behind bars. In 2013, he and two other protest leaders were arrested for violating a law effectively banning public protest. His lawyer, Khaled Ali, welcomed Douma’s release but called on Egyptian authorities to set other political prisoners free.

Khaled Ali: “Thank God for Ahmed’s release. But honestly, there are still many inside, like Alaa Abd El-Fattah, Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, Mohamed al-Qassas, Mohamed Oxygen, Mohammed Adel. There are also still a lot of imprisoned women, and we hope that the next time some of them will also be released, because this is their right. So far, there has only been a focus on the male activists, but not for the women.”