A “proof of life” note indicates that the writer, on hunger strike, returns to drinking water
The circle of relatives of imprisoned British-Egyptian democracy activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah say they have obtained evidence of life, in the form of a letter saying he ended his water strike after six days but will continue his hunger strike.
“I am sure you are worried about me,” Abd el-Fattah wrote to his mother, in a letter written cautiously because her communications are heavily controlled by Egyptian authorities.
The activist has been on hunger strike for more than six months to protest his detention situations and lack of consular access through British officials, first eating a hundred calories a day before becoming a full-blown hunger strike the week before COP27 and then avoiding drinking water on the day the convention began.
In his letter dated Saturday, he said, “Starting today, I will drink water so you don’t worry until you see myself. Vital symptoms are fine today. I measure and get medical care. “
Egypt’s public prosecutor said Abd el-Fattah won “medical intervention” last week after the government previously refused his hunger strike.
The activist’s sister, Sanaa Seif, tweeted: “I am so relieved. We just won a criminal note for my mother, Alaa is alive, she says she has been drinking water since November 12. He says he will say more as soon as possible. “He can. It’s his writing. An evidence of life, finally. Why did they hide this from us for 2 days?
Abd el-Fattah’s circle of relatives won the letter as his mother and lawyer waited for hours at the gates of Wadi el-Natroun prison in the desert outside Cairo. His lawyer, Khaled Ali, has been continuously denied access to his consumer despite obtaining visitation permits, amid considerations about attempts to keep the case out of public view.
Abd el-Fattah is Egypt’s most prominent political criminal, whose hunger strike has drawn attention to the estimated 65,000 political prisoners detained in Egypt while the country hosts COP27 weather talks in Sharm el-Sheikh. He has spent most of the last decade in criminal activity. for sharing an article about torture on social media, and last year granted British citizenship while imprisoned. Despite assurances in his letter, his circle of family claims that British officials in Cairo and London failed to gain consular access.
British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Monday that the government is following Abd el-Fattah’s case “very, very closely”.
“This is a case that the Foreign Ministry has raised for several years. Egyptians don’t recognize him as a British citizen,” he said. “We disagree with them on this point and we have this war of words under pressure. “to them at all degrees up to the prime minister included in his talks with President Sisi. “
Omar Robert Hamilton, and cousin of Abd el-Fattah, said: “Personally, I don’t understand why the British ambassador rarely sits outdoors with Alaa’s mother and her lawyer. They are being thwarted by Egyptians in all departments, to the point that the Foreign Secretary is now repeating the Egyptian government’s oratory problems on British radio. The whole world was willing for the British to get evidence of life, to interfere in one way or another with some other, but they did nothing.
James Lynch, a former British diplomat who heads the rights organization FairSquare and who travelled with Seif to COP27 last week, said Abd el-Fattah’s letter showed the Foreign Office is doing more.
“This is a moment of relief for Alaa’s family, however, it deserves to be a moment of recovery for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. You know, it’s not transparent that they had much to do with this. This is a time when they want to bounce back. ” – evaluate their approach,” he said.
He added: “James Cleverly said this morning that Egypt does not recognise Alaa’s British citizenship. Britain granted him citizenship in December 2021. That was almost a year ago. So, really, this implies that Britain has made almost no progress in 11 months of paintings on this subject.