Egyptian authorities on Monday announced the presidential pardon of prominent activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah, according to his lawyer Khaled Ali and an announcement by Egypt’s state TV. Abd el-Fattah, who has been in prison for six years, is a top activist and was a leading voice in the country’s 2011 Arab Spring uprising who went on hunger strikes behind bars and whose ordeal became emblematic of Egypt’s democratic backsliding.
