Mother of jailed British-Egyptian activist starts hunger strike

The mother of a jailed British-Egyptian pro-democracy writer has started a hunger strike, saying: “I will not eat again until Alaa is released.”

Alaa Abd El-Fattah, 42, has been detained since September 29 2019 and in December 2021 was sentenced to five years in prison after being accused of spreading false news.

The Free Alaa campaign said he should have been released on Sunday and Laila Soueif, 68, has started a hunger strike in protest at her son’s continued imprisonment in Egypt.

Ms Soueif will not eat food and will drink only water with salt to regulate her blood pressure.

The campaign added family members are due to meet Foreign Secretary David Lammy on Wednesday to urge him to help secure Mr Abd El-Fattah’s release from prison and return to the UK.

Mr Abd El-Fattah has spent most of the past decade in prison because of his criticism of Egypt’s rulers and is unable to see his young son who lives in Brighton.

Ms Soueif, who was born in London and lives in Cairo, said: “I will not eat again until Alaa is released.

“Every day that he is in prison beyond his sentence is a grave injustice, even beyond the terrible injustice that he has been imprisoned at all.

“Once again the Egyptian authorities have violated their own laws to persecute my son. At this stage I consider this a kidnapping as well as unlawful detention.

“Alaa is a British citizen, and it is urgent that the UK Government intervene now to stop this new violation of his human rights.

“The Foreign Secretary David Lammy has spoken up for Alaa in the past, but he must now turn those words into action.

“My son had hoped that the British Government would secure his release. If they do not I fear he will spend his entire life in prison. So I am going on hunger strike for him, and I would rather die than allow Alaa to continue to be mistreated in this way.”

Eilidh Macpherson, Amnesty International UK’s individuals at risk campaign manager, said: “Alaa is a courageous democracy activist who should never have spent a single day behind bars never mind five years, and this refusal to release him is a cruelty too far.

“During the past five years there’s been a worrying sense that past governments were doing only the bare minimum to secure Alaa’s freedom – that has got to change.”

A Foreign Office spokesman said: “The Foreign Secretary is committed to trying to resolve Alaa’s case and will meet his family soon.

“The Foreign Secretary raised the need to make progress on Alaa’s case in his first meeting with the Egyptian foreign minister, which took place at the UN last week.”