The household of a British-Egyptian prisoner on starvation strike are staging a protest in London, hoping world scrutiny of Egypt because it prepares to host a essential local weather summit will heap strain on authorities to launch him.
Pro-democracy activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah has spent a lot of the previous decade behind bars in Egypt and final December was jailed for 5 years after being accused of spreading false information.
His sisters Sanaa and Mona Seif and different members of the family arrange camp on Tuesday outdoors the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) in Whitehall, intending to remain there till Egypt hosts the United Nations local weather convention COP27 subsequent month.
“I feel like they’re not doing anything. They know it’s not hard. If James Cleverly [foreign secretary]… wants it to happen, he will be able to bring my brother home,” Sanaa Seif advised Sky News.
“It has been accomplished earlier than. The French have accomplished it with their residents. Americans have accomplished it.
“We have done it with Iran, which is a hostile country not an ally and Egypt is an ally, it should be easier with an ally than than an enemy,” she mentioned, referring to the discharge of British-Iranian Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.
When Liz Truss was overseas secretary she responded to one of many household’s letters to say they proceed to lift Alaa’s case, Ms Seif defined.
“I feel like because the government is busy with internal issues this is not a priority,” she mentioned.
Tens of hundreds of presidency critics, together with journalists, environmental teams, and human rights defenders, are imprisoned in Egypt on “terrorism” prices, in keeping with Human Rights Watch.
Observers concern the regime’s restrictions on protest will forestall civil society from taking part as regular within the yearly local weather convention.
Mr Abd El-Fattah has been on a partial starvation strike within the Cairo jail for 200 days, limiting himself to round 100 energy a day.
Ms Seif added it will be “the worst thing” if the British delegation at COP27 “engages with the Egyptian authorities like diplomacy as usual, as if their citizen dying is not important”.
“It will be really badly interpreted, like a green light to restrict him even more,” she warned.
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