Egyptian activist Sanaa Seif hugs her dog in her home after serving prison sentence on Thursday 23 December, 2021. Photo courtesy of Mona Seif Twitter account.
Her sister, activist Mona Seif, posted Sanaa’s photo on the doors of their homes in Giza on Thursday afternoon.
Sanaa Seif was sentenced by a Cairo criminal court in March to 18 months in prison over spreading false news.
Despite being a first-degree sentence that can be appealed, she did not appeal it.
In June 2020, the State Security Prosecution ordered her arrest on charges of spreading false news and fearmongering on her personal Facebook page.
According to the law, her stint in pretrial detention was deducted from her prison sentence.
This is the third sentence 27-year-old Seif has been handed since 2013.
Following her arrest in 2020, an international campaign was launched calling for her release, including a campaign involving a number of US and UK stars and intellectuals such as Thandie Newton, Naomi Harris, Dame Judi Dench, TV host Amy Goodman, and Noam Chomsky.
The young activist is the daughter of late human rights lawyer Ahmed Seif El-Islam; her sister Mona Seif is also a human rights activist, and her brother — Alaa Abdel-Fattah — is a blogger, who has been sentenced to five years in prison on Monday by a Cairo Emergency State Security Misdemeanour Court for “spreading false news” and “joining an outlawed group.”
Previously, Sanaa was sentenced to three years in prison and received a presidential pardon in September 2015 after having served 15 months.
Moreover, she was sentenced to six months in prison in 2016 for “insulting the judiciary.”
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