Prominent pro-democracy figure freed alongside two other detainees after years in custody.

Egypt on Monday released a prominent activist and senior member of the April 6 movement, the pro democracy group that played a key role in the country’s 2011 uprising, according to a member of the presidential pardons committee.

Lawyer Tarek al Awady said Sherif al Rouby was among three activists freed, calling the move a positive step toward improving respect for rights and freedoms.

Rouby, a founding member and former spokesman of the movement, has spent most of the past decade in detention. He was first arrested in 2016 on charges related to spreading false news and terrorism.

After President Abdel Fattah al Sisi reinstated the pardons committee in 2022, Rouby was briefly released as part of a group of high profile detainees. However, he was re arrested three months later and remained in pretrial detention until his latest release.

Rights group the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights said Rouby suffered medical negligence while in custody.

Authorities also released El Sayed Moshagheb and Nermin Hussein, both linked to the April 6 movement. Moshagheb, detained since 2015, led the Zamalek football club supporters group known as Ultras White Knights, while Hussein was arrested in 2020 after posting online about the government’s response to Covid 19.

Egypt has faced longstanding criticism over its human rights record, particularly regarding the detention of large numbers of political prisoners.

The April 6 movement was founded in 2008 in support of striking workers and later helped mobilize protests that led to the fall of former president Hosni Mubarak in 2011. Many of its members have since been jailed during the rule of Sisi, who came to power after removing Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.

Human Rights Watch has said Egypt continues to restrict basic freedoms and limit civic space.