Alaa Abdel Fattah, a prominent writer and pro-democracy activist, is one of Egypt’s highest-profile prisoners. He has been detained unlawfully for over a decade and should be released immediately.
Laila Soueif, his mother, a math professor and human rights activist, was hospitalized in the early hours of February 25, following almost 150 days on a hunger strike to protest her son’s imprisonment.
Soueif has said she will only end her hunger strike if the Egyptian and UK governments make tangible progress toward freeing her son. But despite the strength of her conviction, there are concerns about how long the 68-year-old will survive. Her doctors have made clear that her life is at immediate risk.
When I visited Soueif in the hospital today, she was far more frail than when I last met with her, with my colleague Amr Magdi, during her daily protest outside 10 Downing Street. This time, she appeared drawn of all energy and visibly diminished, but her conviction remained as resolute as ever.
I was in awe as Soueif mustered the strength to tell me that she needs to see at least some tangible progress: “A call between President Sisi and Prime Minister Starmer would be sufficient” before she would consider ending her hunger strike. As I was leaving her bedside, worried it may be the last time, she looked at me with clear conviction and said, “I know I need to do this; I need to see some movement. I am his mother.”
On February 14, the UK Prime Minister met with Soueif and committed to doing all he can to secure the release of her son, a British-Egyptian dual citizen, and reunite him with his family. Starmer said he would continue to raise Abdel Fattah’s case at the highest levels of the Egyptian government and press for his release. But Soueif is running out of time.
Abdel Fattah advocated for democracy under former President Hosni Mubarak’s autocracy and took part in Egypt’s 2011 revolution. Under current President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi’s government, he has been imprisoned more or less continuously since 2014.
In 2015, an Egyptian court sentenced Abdel Fattah to five years in prison for participating in a 2013 protest. In September 2019, just six months after being conditionally released, he was rearrested during a widespread crackdown and held in pretrial detention for more than two years, exceeding the maximum length permitted under Egyptian law. In December 2021, a court handed him another five-year sentence for “spreading false news.” Twelve United Nations human rights experts found that his right to a fair trial and due process had been violated. He should have been released in September 2024, but authorities continue to hold him, refusing to count the years he spent in pretrial detention toward his time served.
A source with knowledge of his case told Human Rights Watch that Abdel Fattah’s continued detention is at least in part because senior officials “have taken it personally” against him. But releasing him is the only right and lawful thing to do. Alaa has already been severely and unlawfully punished. After 10 years in jail, Abdel Fattah has missed his son’s early childhood.
After the fall of former president Bashar al-Assad in Syria and the heart-wrenching scenes of prisoners being freed from his dungeons, many rightly drew a parallel to Egypt’s inhumane prison system, where thousands of arbitrarily detained people are kept without wrongdoing or fair trial. Releasing political detainees has been the number one issue on the agenda of political parties and professional syndicates, or what remains of them, in Egypt. The Government has taken steps to close some prominent cases and ease restrictions on some critics. Yet the widespread crackdown on civil society, human rights defenders, and journalists continues to tear families apart
Ibn Khaldun, the 14th-century Muslim sociologist and philosopher, said that “injustice brings about the ruin of civilizations.” As Egypt faces tremendous economic challenges, mass repression has created an environment of fear and intimidation in which foreign investors think twice before moving their business to the country. Instead of blaming Egypt’s recurring economic crises on external factors, President Sisi should look inward at the reforms in his power. Releasing Abdel Fattah is a good place to start.
Soueif has become a symbol to tens of thousands of Egyptian mothers, sisters, fathers, and brothers whose lives were changed forever when their loved ones were unjustly put behind bars. She has been a human rights and women’s rights activist for decades, standing up for human rights no matter the cost.
As much as Abdel Fattah’s case has been challenging for the Egypt-UK relationship, it also provides an opportunity to demonstrate that human rights are at the center of the relationship. It is not just Soueif who needs to see some tangible progress with stakes that could not be higher, it is also millions of Egyptians who want to see a way forward for their country.
