Egypt frees activist blogger after six years behind bars
Protesters in Cairo call for the release of detained journalists.
Egypt has freed blogger Mohamed Ibrahim Radwan, known as Mohamed Oxygen, after more than six years in prison, The New Arab via AFP reported on 24 March.
Radwan was jailed on charges of spreading false news, according to the press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF). In posts across its social media platforms, the organisation said it was “delighted” by his release on 20 March, adding that he was awarded its Courage Prize in 2023.
Radwan, founder of the blog “Oxygen Egypt”, was arrested in 2019 after publishing videos on social media about protests against President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. He was later released under police supervision before being re-arrested on similar charges.
The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights said he was sentenced to four years in prison in 2021 and should have been released earlier. It said his conviction followed several years of pre-trial detention that were not deducted from his sentence.
The Committee for Justice (CFJ) said Radwan’s detention involved multiple cases, with a release order issued in November 2020 not implemented and him instead placed in a new case on similar charges.
He remained in pre-trial detention in the second case for more than a year before being referred to trial in the first, where he received a four-year sentence upheld in January 2022. After completing the sentence in January 2026, he was again held in pre-trial detention until his release.
RSF had previously raised concerns about Radwan’s detention conditions, saying he was held in isolation in Badr prison in Cairo and had launched a hunger strike in protest.
Egypt ranks 170th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2025 World Press Freedom Index. Human rights groups say tens of thousands of political prisoners, including activists and journalists, are held in the country, a claim authorities deny.
RSF also called on Egyptian authorities to release 18 other journalists still in detention.
AFP, The New Arab, Reporters Without Borders, Committee for Justice
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