Egypt activist Ahmed Douma freed after presidential pardon

Cairo, Egypt – AFP

Egyptian activist Ahmed Douma, a leading figure in the country’s 2011 uprising who has spent the past decade behind bars, walked free from prison Saturday following a presidential pardon.

Douma, now 37, was a leading activist in the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime president Hosni Mubarak. He was arrested in the sweeping crackdown that followed the army’s 2013 ouster of Mohamed Morsi, the Islamist president elected after the uprising.

“After 10 years in prison, I wish I could say that I am happy after being released, but I postpone any celebrations till all get freedom,” Douma said after leaving Badr prison on Cairo’s outskirts — a facility that has been repeatedly criticised for its poor conditions.

“I wish we can celebrate soon.”

Douma was originally sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2015 for clashing with security forces, but this was cut to 15 years in 2019.

Later that year, Egypt’s top appeals court upheld the reduced sentence, as well as a fine of six million Egyptian pounds ($372,000 at the time).

In 2021, Douma published a collection of poems entitled “Curly”, written while he was held in solitary confinement.

The collection was displayed at that year’s Cairo International Book Fair before being quickly pulled for “security reasons”.