UK – The Guardian, September 24, 2024
The family of Alaa Abd el-Fattah, a British activist and author imprisoned in Egypt, are calling on the UK government as well as the Egyptian authorities to ensure he walks free at the end of this month after five years in detention.
“Let’s remember that this is an innocent man who has committed no crime, but even so he will have served his time on 29 September,” said Abd el-Fattah’s sister, Sanaa Seif.
Abd el-Fattah’s family fear what rights groups have described as Egypt’s “revolving door” detention system where political prisoners are hit with fresh charges to prevent them from going free.
Seif said she hoped the Egyptian authorities could prove responsive to the new government in London if it were to state that Abd el-Fattah had served his time and should be freed. She said David Lammy, the foreign secretary, was “well placed to deliver” her brother’s freedom if he chooses to act.
Lammy has previously championed Abd el-Fattah’s case, accusing the former Conservative government of letting down British citizens by failing to take action. While Lammy has not addressed Abd el-Fattah’s case publicly since taking office, Seif and her family hope he will do in government what he demanded while in opposition.
Abd el-Fattah, a figurehead of Egypt’s 2011 uprising that overthrew the former dictator Hosni Mubarak, has spent the majority of the last decade in detention for his activism, mostly after a sweeping anti-democratic crackdown by President Abdel-Fatah al-Sisi, who came to power in a military coup a decade ago.
The 42-year-old computer programmer and blogger, known for his writing about countering authoritarianism, was detained five years ago when authorities swept up well-known activists during a brief spate of anti-government protests.
He became a British citizen while incarcerated in December 2021 through his mother, the human rights activist Laila Soueif. That month he was sentenced to five years in detention, accused of “spreading false news and undermining national security”, for sharing a social media post about torture.
Abd el-Fattah’s family say the upcoming date marking the end of his five years in prison, including a prolonged spell in pre-trial detention in a maximum-security prison where he was tortured on arrival, presents an opportunity for both governments.
