Alaa Abd El Fattah’s Mother, Laila Soueif, Calls on UK Government to Help as She Continues Hunger Strike

<

div class=”field field–name-body field–type-text-with-summary field–label-hidden”>

<

div class=”field__items”>

<

div class=”field__item even”>

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 o

[…]
Content was cut in order to protect the source.Please visit the source for the rest of the article.