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As we broadcast today, Egyptian authorities announced a presidential pardon for Alaa Abd El-Fattah, a free speech and democracy activist imprisoned for six years on dubious charges of “spreading false news.” The blogger was a leading voice in the 2011 Arab Spring protests that toppled the Mubarak dictatorship, and was repeatedly targeted by the current authoritarian government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Monday’s pardon comes after years of international pressure to “Free Alaa,” including in the United Kingdom, where he also holds citizenship.
“We might feel lonely and isolated and cold and wet and hungry when we’re on the streets demonstrating,” says Jeremy Corbyn, a member of British Parliament and former leader of the U.K. Labour Party who has supported freedom for El-Fattah, who has joint Egyptian-British citizenship, and met with his family members. “It makes a difference, and his freedom is a product of all that solidarity all around the world.”
Transcript
AMY GOODMAN: Jeremy Corbyn, we have this late-breaking news that has just come in. The Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi issued a pardon for the prominent blogger and activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah, who’s been in jail since 2019. If you can comment on the significance —
JEREMY CORBYN: Brilliant news.
AMY GOODMAN: — of this moment? His mother has been fasting — I’m sure you know her well — in Britain, demanding Britain pressure Egypt. Talk about it.
JEREMY CORBYN: I do know his mother very well. I’ve met her many times. And we’ve done everything we can in Parliament and elsewhere to support. This is amazing news. Again, this didn’t come from nowhere. It came from international solidarity. It came from activism. So, anyone watching now on Democracy Now!, be aware. We might feel lonely and isolated and cold and wet and hungry when we’re on the streets demonstrating. It makes a difference. And his freedom is a product of all that solidarity all around the world. This is amazing news. Congratulations to him, to his mum. And by the way, everybody, read his book.
AMY GOODMAN: And do you expect him to be coming to Britain soon?
JEREMY CORBYN: Well, he has, obviously, a home in Britain. He’s very welcome here, and I would love to welcome him to Britain. I’d love to take him to Parliament, where a whole bunch of us would like to buy him a slap-up tea to welcome him back.
AMY GOODMAN: Jeremy Corbyn, thank you so much for being with us, at a flag-raising ceremony in what is now the Palestinian Embassy in London, as Great Britain recognizes Palestine as a state, along with Portugal and Australia and Canada. France is expected to do it, as well, this week, as well as a number of other countries, joining close to 150 other countries in the world that have formally recognized Palestine as a sovereign and independent state.
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