A central figure in the popular uprising that led to the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak in 2011 and now the black sheep of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, he has been consuming just 100 calories a day for 100 days, i.e. a spoonful of honey and a little milk in his tea
The support committee of the most famous prisoner activist in the Egyptof Alaa Abdel Fattahwho today completes 100 days of hunger strike, called on the US on Saturday to act for his release.
Abdel Fattah, 40, a central figure in the popular uprising that led to the 2011 overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak and now the president’s black sheep Abdel Fattah al-Sisihas been taking “just 100 calories a day, a spoonful of honey and a little milk in his tea” for 100 days, relatives said.
Sana’a’s sister said she will take his case to Washington on Monday, as US President Joe Biden is expected to make his first Middle East tour next week to Saudi Arabia where he will meet with many Arab officials, including Sisi.
His other sister, Mona, who has not stopped reporting on the fate of more than 60,000 political prisoners in Egypt, has been collecting letters of support from MPs in London, Berlin and Brussels for months.
Abdel Fattah was sentenced at the end of 2021 to five years in prison for spreading ‘fake news’but has been held since September 2019.
An engineer, he was an important figure in the Kefaya trade union movement in the 2000s, then in the 2011 uprising, two years later he participated in the massive demonstrations against the Islamist president Morsi and finally in the mobilizations against Sisi, then a field marshal who overthrew Morsi.
He has the peculiarity that he has been imprisoned by all the presidents of Egypt in the last two decades: He was in prison in 2006 during the presidency of Mubarak. He returned when Egypt was ruled de facto by Marshal Mohamed Tadawi (2011-2012), under Morsi and now under Sisi.
Indeed, in prison he became a British citizen, in the midst of a hunger strike, which he began on April 2.
Abdel Fattah has a 10-year-old son whom he has hardly ever seen outside of prison. He has named it Khaled in honor of Khaled Said who was killed by police in 2010, his death sparking the popular uprising of 2011.
According to his family, Abdel Fattah did not get to sleep on a mattress or receive a book until last month when he was transferred to a new prison.
“He will not receive food unless he is first visited by the British consular authorities“, his support committee says in its announcement.
At the end of June, the British foreign minister Liz Truss had assured that he was “working hard” for his release.
“The Egyptian authorities know that Alaa is a symbol of resistance and freedom (…) His unjust detention sends a clear message to other activists and tarnishes preparations” for the UN Climate Conference COP27, which will take place in November in Egypt, Amnesty International had emphasized at the end of June.
View the news feed and get the latest news.
