Hi everyone 

I should have sent this update weeks ago .. I think my heart was trying to grasp that ALAA is FREE, and that Egypt's prisons are , for the very first time in more than a decade, a part of my family's past. 

When I now say "Alaa is finally with his son after 12 years in prison" my brain freezes for a second, unable to understand how we dealt with this grave injustice for such a long time?! and how thousands of families of Egyptian detainees are still bearing the same heartache, and like us before, not knowing when and where is the end point?!. 

But I know this; we wouldn't have made it through, we wouldn't have been able to maintain our sanity and humanity, if it weren't for the extraordinary support and love we have been shown every step of the way from people all over the world

Thanks to each and every one of you

for signing the petition

for sharing Alaa's writings

for raising the voices of all unjustly detained

for joining our vigils

for every message of support

for nagging your MPs to keep pushing for justice

and for standing by mother when she embarked on her painful hunger-strike.

As I am writing this update , it is Easter Break. Alaa and Khaled, his son, are visiting me and Lana, my daughter, at Cambridge. Such a seemingly "ordinary" family activity, but a very precious one to my family. 

I am forever grateful to each and every one of you for helping my family win back their ordinary life.

Thank you and much love

Mona 

• You can now listen to Alaa in his first extended conversation since his release -last September- from prison in Egypt, with the poet, performer -and my friend- Farah Barqawi 

• To follow news of British nationals arbitrarily detained abroad, check Amnesty UK's updates on Mehran Raoof  and Jimmy Lai, Redress's update on Jagtar Singh and updates of HostageAid  on hostage cases worldwide, several of which are Britons.

• Finally, please keep on urging our government to make sure they deliver on their promise to appoint a special envoy dedicated to British nationals in arbitrary detention overseas.