As calls by UK’s top leaders for the release of British-Egyptian blogger, coder, and activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah from prison in Cairo continue, Alaa’s mother, math professor Laila Soueif, grows weaker four months into a hunger strike she began in September to keep attention focused on her son and protest the lack of progress in obtaining his release.
She has consumed only water, coffee, tea and rehydration salts for more than 135 days. She is 68 years old, and her condition is becoming dire.
It’s a shocking and unacceptable situation for Alaa’s family and his many supporters around the world. They continue to get the runaround from the British government about its efforts to get him released. The prime minister and foreign secretary, the key players in the drive to secure Alaa’s release, have expressed support for Alaa and dealt directly with Egypt’s highest authorities on his behalf. But Alaa’s family has received scant information about those discussions.
What we do know is that Prime Minister Keir Starmer spoke directly to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi about Alaa during a phone call last summer and in December, but did not raise the issue when the two met at the G20 summit in November. Starmer told Soueif in a January 29 letter (he has so far declined to meet with her) that he is committed to pushing Egypt to release him. “I believe progress is possible, but it will take time,” he said.
“I don’t have time, Soueif told Agence France-Presse.
Likewise, Foreign Secretary David Lammy said in January that he met with Egypt’s foreign minister in Saudi Arabia and has made securing Alaa’s release his number one priority. He spoke to his Egyptian counterpart, Badr Abdel Aty, again while in Cairo. Meanwhile, the government sent a strong message in its periodic review of Egypt before the UN Human Rights Council, saying freeing Alaa was its foremost recommendation and calling his detention “unacceptable.”
Yet, there have been no signs that the Egyptian government will free Alaa. He remains in a maximum-security prison outside of Cairo. He has spent the better part of the last 10 years behind bars, unjustly charged for supporting online free speech and privacy for Egyptians and people across the Middle East and North Africa. The Egyptian government’s treatment of Alaa, a prominent global voice during the Arab Spring, is a travesty.
“I don’t have time,” Soueif told Agence France-Presse.
“We’ve been in this endless loop of imprisonment for almost 10 years,” Soueif told Middle East Eye in explaining why she went on a hunger strike. “I couldn’t allow this to go on any further, and there was no reason to believe that if we waited a bit more, he’d come out.”
Alaa should have been released on September 29, after serving his five-year sentence for sharing a Facebook post about a death in police custody, but Egyptian authorities have continued his imprisonment in contravention of the country’s own Criminal Procedure Code.
Journalism and former foreign correspondent Peter Greste, who befriended Alaa 11 years ago when the two were locked up in the same prison—Greste on terrorism charges for his reporting—joined Soueif in a 21-day hunger strike to show his solidarity. “This injustice has gone on far too long,” he said.
Others continue to press for Alaa’s release. This week a group of prominent Egyptian public figures called on President al-Sisi to release Alaa, citing among other things Soueif’s declining health. Allowing Alaa to get out of prison would not merely be a humanitarian response, but “a strategic decision that would foster a more conciliatory political climate,” they said.
EFF and six international partner organizations in December called on Starmer to take immediate action to secure Alaa’s release. We told him that Alaa’s case is a litmus test of the UK’s commitment to human rights. Soueif’s future, and Alaa’s, rests in the UK government’s hands, and it must act now. Starmer needs to pick up the phone and call al-Sisi.
If you’re based in the UK, here are some actions you can take to support the calls for Alaa’s release:
- Write to your MP (external link): https://freealaa.net/message-mp
- Join Laila Soueif outside the Foreign Office in London daily between 10-11am
- Share Alaa’s plight on social media using the hashtag #freealaa
