CAIRO—The household of certainly one of Egypt’s most outstanding pro-democracy activists is asking on Western leaders to assist safe his launch from jail, the place he has been on starvation strike for 100 days, as President Biden prepares to go to the Middle East subsequent week.
Alaa Abdel-Fattah,
a 40-year outdated writer and software program developer, rose to prominence through the nation’s 2011 revolution that toppled longtime President
Hosni Mubarak.
He has spent a lot of the previous decade behind bars, as Egypt’s safety forces have sought to maintain folks related to the rebellion from inspiring one other revolution.
Mr. Abdel-Fattah comes from a household of activists and has turn into a logo of resistance towards what many rights teams name a return to autocratic rule in Egypt. Last 12 months, he printed a e book of essays and reflections concerning the nation’s tumultuous previous, with a few of the writings smuggled out of his cell.
Mr. Abdel-Fattah was granted British citizenship final 12 months. According to his household, the activist went on a starvation strike in April and has gone with none substantial meals for 100 days now, to protest his unjust imprisonment and never being allowed a consular go to by the British embassy. They say he has been consuming nothing however the occasional spoon of honey and skimmed milk.
Mr. Abdel-Fattah’s sister,
Mona Seif,
warned not too long ago about his well being, saying that “a deterioration could happen all of a sudden.”
She helped lead a protest in entrance of the U.Ok.’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in London final week, when British Foreign Secretary
Liz Truss
met with Egyptian Foreign Minister
Sameh Shoukry.
The household of Mr. Abdel-Fattah and human-rights advocates have sought to attract consideration to Egypt’s human-rights report forward of Mr. Biden’s journey in mid-July to Saudi Arabia, the place he’s anticipated to satisfy with Egyptian President
Abdel Fattah Al Sisi
at a summit for regional leaders.
Relatives of greater than 30 women and men detained in Saudi Arabia and Egypt despatched a letter this previous week to the White House, calling on President Biden to assist safe their family members’ freedom. Mr. Abdel-Fattah’s household was among the many signatories.
Human-rights activists and a few of the kin, together with Mr. Abdel-Fattah’s household, will converse in a U.S. Senate workplace constructing in Washington this week. The household additionally plans to lift consciousness in Germany, the place President Sisi is predicted to attend a convention on local weather change this month.
Earlier within the 12 months, Mr. Abdel-Fattah’s household pressed his case with
Uzra Zeya,
the U.S. State Department’s undersecretary for human rights, and
Samantha Power,
head of the U.S. Agency for International Development.
The State Department didn’t reply to a request for remark.
President Sisi toppled his predecessor, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, by main a navy coup in 2013. Local and worldwide rights teams accuse Mr. Sisi of then capitalizing on fears of the Islamist group to crack down on all varieties of dissent; they estimate that political prisoners in Egypt immediately quantity within the tens of 1000’s, with many detained for years with no cost.
In 2020 and 2021, authorities detained, arrested and summoned greater than 16,000 people for political causes together with collaborating in protests, based on Cairo-based analysis group Shafafia Center.
Egyptian authorities have denied wrongdoing, though in current months Mr. Sisi pledged a brand new human-rights technique. This April, he introduced the forming of an amnesty committee to launch sure prisoners.
Human-rights advocates estimate that Egypt has freed greater than 200 political prisoners prior to now two months. Still, they are saying tons of extra have been newly detained or reimprisoned.
In current years, rights activists say the West has more and more turned a blind eye to Mr. Sisi’s repressions. Their agenda this 12 months is being additional sophisticated by the struggle in Ukraine, which has triggered issues within the U.S. and Europe over vitality safety, in addition to the West’s must bolster help towards Russian President
Vladimir Putin.
Earlier this 12 months, the Biden administration authorized a $2.5 billion arms sale to Egypt, across the identical time that it withheld $130 million in navy support to Egypt, citing human-rights issues.
Mr. Abdel-Fattah has confronted a sequence of arrests going again as early as 2006. In 2014, he was sentenced to 5 years in jail for participating in protests. After serving that time period, he was detained once more in 2019, as a part of a crackdown on antigovernment protests. Last December, he was sentenced to a different 5 years for a
submit about rights violations in jail.
In May, authorities transferred Mr. Abdel-Fattah from the infamous Tora jail in Cairo to a different correctional facility referred to as Wadi El-Natrun, north of the capital.
His household says he shouldn’t have been arrested or sentenced on any event. They allege he was tortured in Tora and that he’s nonetheless being denied primary authorized and human rights.
Egypt’s State Information Office didn’t reply to a request for touch upon Mr. Abdel-Fattah’s detention. Egypt’s Ministry of Interior beforehand stated Mr. Abdel-Fattah wasn’t on starvation strike.
Late final month, officers at Wadi El-Natrun withheld letters from Mr. Abdel-Fattah to the household, triggering issues about his standing. “I just want two lines saying mama, I’m alright,” stated Mr. Abdel-Fattah’s mom,
Laila Soueif.
It was solely after three visits to the power that Ms. Soueif was capable of obtain letters from her son, confirming that he was nonetheless alive.
—
Amira El-Fekki
contributed to this text.
Write to Chao Deng at [email protected]
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