The Egyptian-British human rights activist and writer Alaa Abd el-Fattah has been pardoned after almost six years in jail and hunger strikes by Abd el-Fattah and his mother.

The announcement was made on Monday in Egypt’s official gazette and came following an appeal from the National Council for Human Rights, Al Qahera news reported.

In a post on X, Abd el-Fattah’s sister, Mona Seif, said: “My heart is going to stop”.

Abd el-Fattah was arrested in September 2019 and was later sentenced in December 2021 to five years in prison for “spreading false news” and harming Egypt’s national interest.

Rights groups have said Abd el-Fattah faced a “grossly unfair trial”.

He emerged as a leading pro-democracy activist and blogger during Egypt’s 2011 popular uprising, which forced former President Hosni Mubarak from office after three decades in power.

In 2015, he was sentenced to five years in prison after being found guilty of violating protest laws two years earlier, when current president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi led a coup against Mubarak’s democratically elected successor Mohamed Morsi.

El-Sisi went on to win the presidency in a disputed 2014 vote marred by low turnout and a sweeping crackdown on dissent. He has since been accused of jailing tens of thousands of critics of his rule.

Abd el-Fattah remained imprisoned until March 2019, when he was released on probation. But within six months he was rearrested.