An attorney representing political activist Ahmed Douma took to social media Saturday to announce the activist’s release, made possible by a presidential pardon. Douma had endured a decade of incarceration within the confines of Egyptian state penitentiaries.

Douma was resentenced to 15 years in prison by the Cairo Criminal Court in 2019 after initially being sentenced to 25 years for “participating in a gathering that threatens public peace with the aim of assaulting the military and police forces.”

The activist was apprehended in December 2013 following Abdel Fattah El-Sisi’s military coup against democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi.

Douma had also been subject to state censorship. In 2021, he managed to publish a poetry collection titled “Curly” from behind prison walls, with the assistance of the publishing house EL Maraya. However, agents of Egypt’s clandestine services thwarted the dissemination of his collection and demanded a halt to its distribution.

The activist’s clemency was granted in relation to three cases, two of which were adjudicated in 2014, while the remaining one dates back to 2011. Douma played a pivotal role in the January 25 revolution, which led to the downfall of long-standing President Hosni Mubarak. Furthermore, he is recognized as one of the founders of the “April 6” movement, which orchestrated protests and civil opposition within the country.

Ahmed Douma was to serve five more years in prison and he was also subject to a fine amounting to 6 million Egyptian Pounds.

Both the judicial proceedings and the activist’s period of incarceration garnered substantial attention from both national and international media outlets, eliciting condemnation from civil society and prompting repeated calls for his release by human rights organizations.