A mother on hunger strike has urged Sir Keir Starmer to help free her jailed son before she collapses and needs hospital treatment.
British-Egyptian pro-democracy activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah, 43, whose young son lives in Brighton, has been detained in Egypt since Sunday 29 September 2019.
In December 2021 Mr Abd El-Fattah was sentenced to five years in prison after being accused of spreading false news.
His mother, Laila Soueif, 68, has been on hunger strike for more than 80 days and her protest now includes sitting outside the Foreign Office, in London, for an hour on each working day of the week.
The Free Alaa campaign said that Ms Soueif would continue her action until she either hears news from Foreign Secretary David Lammy about her son or “she collapses and is hospitalised”.
The campaign added she will deliver regular notes to the Foreign Office, with her medical vitals on them, to remind Mr Lammy that “time is running out” to secure the release of Mr Abd El-Fattah.
Ms Soueif stepped up her campaigning efforts as the Foreign Office confirmed Prime Minister Sir Keir last raised the case with his Egyptian counterpart in August, with no mention made at the recent G20 summit attended by the pair.
Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi reportedly met Sir Keir on the sidelines of the summit in Brazil.
Mr Abd El-Fattah has spent most of the past decade in prison because of his criticism of Egypt’s rulers and has not seen his Brighton-based son.
Ms Soueif, a professor of mathematics, spoke last week about her latest protest action: “I will visit the Foreign Office every day to wait for news in the hope that the UK government will finally secure Alaa’s release.
“But I am over 70 days into my hunger strike and time is running out. I need David Lammy and Keir Starmer to free my son, before I collapse or am hospitalised.
“I believe that the UK government know what they need to do to secure Alaa’s release and, at this stage, it is a case of them getting on with it.
“In opposition, David Lammy was right to call for diplomatic consequences for Egypt if Alaa was not released. The Foreign Secretary must now follow his own advice.
“Alaa is a British citizen and he should be with his son in Brighton, not in prison, beyond his sentence, in Egypt.
“It is time for David Lammy to make this clear to the Egyptian authorities. I need the UK government to act now, because I don’t know how much longer my health will last.”
Foreign Office minister Hamish Falconer, responding to a written parliamentary question from independent MP John McDonnell (Hayes and Harlington), said: “The UK government remains committed to securing the release of Alaa Abd El-Fattah.
“We continue to raise Mr El-Fattah’s case at the highest levels with the Egyptian government. The Prime Minister did not raise the case with President Sisi at the G20 summit.
“The Prime Minister last raised Mr El-Fattah’s case with President Sisi on Thursday 8 August 2024. Most recently, the Foreign Secretary raised Mr El-Fattah’s case with Egyptian foreign minister Abdelatty on Monday 25 November.”
Karla McLaren, Amnesty International UK’s head of government affairs, said: “It’s heartbreaking that Laila is having to put herself through this ordeal in order to win Alaa’s freedom, a prisoner of conscience who should never have been jailed in the first place never mind for more than five years.
“Throughout these long hard years for the family, we’ve been acutely aware that successive UK governments haven’t done enough to secure Alaa’s freedom – a situation which urgently needs to change.
“We need to see the government now genuinely prioritising diplomatic efforts to get Alaa out of jail and safely out of the country.
“And this should be front and centre of a new governmental strategy for how it responds to the plight of UK nationals arbitrarily detained overseas.”
