CAIRO — The downtown Cairo apartment of Alaa Abd el-Fattah was filled with laughter and joy Tuesday as family and friends gathered to absorb the long-awaited news: the pro-democracy Egyptian-British activist had finally walked free.

Abd el-Fattah was pardoned by President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and released Monday after spending almost all the past 12 years in prison. He and five other prisoners had been pardoned after the National Council for Human Rights acted on behalf of their families, urging the president to consider their situations on humanitarian grounds.

“I felt a wave of sudden relief as if my body had been clenched tight for years and was finally loosening and just now releasing a weight that I have been carrying,” Abd el-Fattah’s sister, Sanaa Seif, told The Associated Press

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