Shortly after I arrived at Tora Maximum Security Prison in Cairolucky horse, a prisoner with a trendy haircut and glasses entered my cell, handed me a plastic bag and whispered, “From Alaa.” Inside the bag were several packs of cigarettes, the currency of the prison; blue and white T-shirts, the only colors prisoners could wear; and small plastic packets of tea and sugar.

It was February 2016. I had been arrested and sentenced to two years in prison for writing a novel whose obscenity, the authorities said, violated the law. The welcome package was a gift from my dear friend Alaa Abd El Fattah, an activist and a political prisoner who was then entering his second year in the Tora prison. He is still locked away.

Alaa was supposed to be freed in September. He was first arrested in 2013 for protesting against Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s regime and spent five years in prison. And then, in 2019, he was arrested for “spreading false news undermining national security” and was sent to prison for another five years. That term should have ended in September. Yet the Egyptian government arbitrarily extended the sentence for two more years.

My friend’s case is a stark reminder of the growing lawlessness of Egypt under President Sisi, who has systematically dismantled state institutions since taking power in 2014. These institutions had shielded Egypt from complete collapse in 2011, after President Hosni Mubarak’s ouster. Today, trust in every pillar of society — including the army and the judiciary — has eroded. At times, they seem to serve as mere ornamentation.

I met Alaa in 2005, during Egypt’s first presidential election. American troops had recently occupied Iraq, and the administration of President George W. Bush maintained a close relationship with Egypt’s longtime ruler, Mr. Mubarak, thanks to tight security cooperation and about $1.5 billion in annual military aid. President Bush sought to reshape the Middle East, supposedly promoting democracy, reform and freedom. Under American pressure, several Arab allies, including Egypt and Saudi Arabia, were compelled to make superficially democratic gestures, like staged elections.

The 2005 Egyptian election was a spectacle. Mr. Mubarak had been in power for 24 years. Everybody acted as if it were a real contest, but the winner was known in advance. I was 20, and Alaa was 23; we talked about how crazy Egypt’s Western backers were, pretending as they did that the king was clothed when he was, in fact, naked.

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