UK – The Standard, September 26, 2024
Britain’s “flourishing relationships” with Egypt have “enraged” the sister of a pro-democracy writer jailed since 2019, she has said.
Mona Seif warned that David Lammy risked adopting a doctrine which previously “got us nowhere” at a press conference on Thursday, held days before her brother Alaa Abd El-Fattah marks five years in prison on September 29.
Egyptian authorities detained Mr Abd El-Fattah, a 42-year-old British-Egyptian, on September 29 2019, and in December 2021, he was sentenced to five years in prison after being accused of spreading false news.
Ms Seif and her sister Sanaa shared their hopes that their brother will be freed on the weekend, and that they would meet with Mr Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, to discuss the case.
“I think the previous Tory government and the prime minister and the series of foreign secretaries we met with, I honestly think they did not have the will and they did not put this as a priority, and they did not want to rattle any relationship,” Ms Seif told journalists in London.
“The previous government made it obvious that this is not a priority – they don’t care. It is up to the Labour right now to change this and make it known to all governments… that this is a priority and that this will affect diplomatic and business relationships.
“If they don’t do this, then they are failing us.”
The human rights campaigner added: “Until now, while I do know David Lammy has been… our agreed advocate and our champion, I am sadly waiting for him, we are all waiting for him, to see a shift in the approach. Right now they are making the same soft diplomacy approach that had been adopted by the Tory government (which) got us nowhere.”
Mr Lammy while in opposition pressed the previous government on its handling of the case.
