British activist jailed in Egypt goes on hunger strike

Alaa Abd El-Fattah, a critic of Egypt’s rulers, began refusing food on March 1.

Laila Soueif (centre right), the mother of the 40-year-old British-Egyptian writer Alaa Abd el-Fattah, takes part in a vigil for the jailed pro-democracy activist who has been incarcerated in Egypt for most of the past decade, outside the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) in Westminster, London, calling on the UK government to urgently press for his release from jail in Egypt. — British citizen Alaa Abd El-Fattah has gone on hunger strike while imprisoned in Egypt, but his mother has moved to a partial hunger strike citing ‘hope’ of movement in his case. (Jordan Pettitt/PA)

A British citizen who has been imprisoned in Egypt since 2019 has gone on hunger strike, his family has learned.

Alaa Abd El-Fattah, a critic of Egypt’s rulers, began refusing food on March 1 after learning his mother had been admitted to hospital during her own hunger strike last week, according to a statement from his family.

He has been detained in Egypt since September 2019 and in 2021 was sentenced to five years in prison after being accused of spreading false news.

El-Fattah’s mother, Laila Soueif, has herself been on hunger strike for 159 days in protest against his detention, and was taken to St Thomas’s Hospital in London on February 24 facing an “immediate risk” to her life.

A close-up of Laila Soueif — Laila Soueif has moved to a partial hunger strike over her son’s imprisonment after she was admitted to hospital in a dangerous condition last week (James Manning/PA)

On Friday, her family announced that Ms Soueif had agreed to move to a partial hunger strike, consuming only 300 calories a day in liquids, saying there was “hope that Alaa’s case might move”.

Her decision follows a call between Sir Keir Starmer and Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi on February 28, in which the Prime Minister pressed for El-Fattah’s release.

But Ms Soueif, 68, said she would go back on hunger strike if there was not rapid progress on her son’s case.

Sir Keir met Ms Soueif in mid-February and said he would do “all that I can” to secure her son’s release.

Sanaa Seif, El-Fattah’s sister, said she was “glad” her mother was now on partial hunger strike, but added her body was “very weak” and she was unlikely to survive on 300 calories a day for long.

She said: “These calories are giving us some more time, but we need Keir Starmer to use this time to deliver on another call with President Sisi to secure Alaa’s release.

“At the same time my family is devastated that Alaa is now on hunger strike in prison. Alaa started his hunger strike when he heard that my mother had been hospitalised, and he gets very limited information while locked away.

“But I understand how desperate he feels in there, and the emotional toll he must feel while our mother is starving herself to try to get him out.”