- Family of Alaa Abdel Fattah says they have received confirmation that he is still alive.
- Letter to his mother dated Saturday says he is “drinking water again” and “receiving medical attention”.
- His family had not heard from him since he started refusing water on 6 November.
The family of hunger striker and imprisoned British-Egyptian campaigner Alaa Abdel Fattah claims they have received confirmation that he is still alive.
A letter to his mother dated Saturday says he is “drinking water again” and “receiving medical attention”.
“I can sleep today without nightmares,” his sister said in response.
His family had not heard from him since he started refusing water on 6 November to coincide with the start of the COP27 climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh.
Despite the prosecutor general issuing permits, the prison administration also refused his counsel entry on Thursday and once more on Sunday.
In the interim, the public prosecution claimed—without offering any supporting evidence—that a medical assessment had revealed Abdel Fattah to be in “excellent health.”
The 40 year old, who is imprisoned for allegedly “spreading false news”, has become a symbol of the 60,000 political prisoners believed by human rights groups to be languishing in Egyptian jails. Egypt insists there are none.
This is the letter Alaa’s mother received at the prison gates today. It’s dated two days ago. This is all we have. #FreeAlaa #COP27 pic.twitter.com/UXxwoV9gpf
— Free Alaa (@FreedomForAlaa) November 14, 2022
Abdel Fattah’s brief letter to his mother Laila Soueif is dated Saturday at 16:00 local time (14:00 GMT).
“How are you, Mama? I’m sure you’re really worried about me,” it says.
“From today I’m drinking water again so you can stop worrying until you see me yourself. Vital signs today are OK. I’m measuring regularly and receiving medical attention.”
Abdel Fattah asks his mother to send him an MP3 player, vitamins, and fizzy salts to the prison and pledges to write a longer letter on the “day of provisioning.”
“Today is the first day I’ve been able to take a proper breath in eight days,” said his sister, Sanaa Seif, who is in Sharm el-Sheikh to lobby for his release.
“Now we know he’s alive. I’d know his handwriting anywhere. But when I read [the letter] again and again it leaves me with more questions. Why have they been refusing his lawyer access to him, even with a permit?
“Why did they hold this letter back from us for two days? Is it just cruelty to punish the family for speaking up?”
Ms. Seif stated that her brother was still “arbitrarily held with no end in sight,” still on a hunger strike, and still barred from speaking with British consulate staff.
“Even with so much international attention on Alaa the Egyptian authorities can still just disappear him. He needs to be on a plane to London and only then will we allow ourselves to feel true relief.”
Abdel Fattah, a citizen of the United Kingdom since last year thanks to his mother, who was born in London, started a partial hunger strike seven months ago in an effort to persuade the authorities to at the very least permit British diplomats to visit him.
He said in a letter on October 31 that he would just drink water until COP27 opened and then quit even doing that because they continued to deny him consular access or to even acknowledge his British citizenship.
As worries over Abdel Fattah’s health grew, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that during a meeting with Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi in Sharm el-Sheikh last Monday, he had demanded his immediate release.
Additionally pleading with Egypt to release Abdel Fattah are US President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk.
UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly old Times Radio on Monday morning that he was keeping “a very, very close eye on this case”.
“What we will do is we will keep working to secure consular access because he is British dual national and that is what we expect and we’ll keep pushing to get resolution on this long standing and very difficult case,” he said.
[embedpost slug=”egypts-jailed-dissident-abdel-fattah-becomes-british-family/”]
