Jailed British-Egyptian activist is still alive, says sister

Sanaa Seif, the sister of writer Alaa Abd el-Fattah, a British-Egyptian activist imprisoned in Egypt, protests outside the Foreign Office (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

The family of jailed British-Egyptian writer and pro-democracy activist Alaa Abdel-Fattah say they have received confirmation that he is still alive.

Concerns for Mr Abdel-Fattah have been growing after he stepped up a hunger strike and stopped taking water in protest at his treatment by the Egyptian authorities.

Prison officials last week refused to allow a lawyer for the family to visit him after the authorities told his mother they had made an unspecified medical intervention.

On Monday, however, his sister Sanaa Seif tweeted: “I’m so relieved. We just got a note from prison to my mother, Alaa is alive, he says he’s drinking water again as of November 12th.

“He says he’ll say more as soon as he can. It’s definitely his handwriting. Proof of life, at last. Why did they hold this back from us for 2 days?!”

Mr Abdel-Fattah escalated his protest to coincide with the start of the Cop27 climate change summit in the Egyptian resort of Sharm El-Sheikh in the hope of focusing the attention of the world on his plight.

He has spent most of the past decade in prison and is currently serving a five-year sentence on charges of disseminating false news for retweeting a report in 2019 that another prisoner died in custody.

For the past six months he has been on a partial hunger strike, taking just 100 calories a day.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak raised his case with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi when he attended the opening of Cop27.

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the Government was keeping “a very, very close eye” on his case.

“It’s a case that the Foreign Office has raised over a number of years in support of him. The Egyptians do not recognise him as a British citizen,” he said.

“We disagree with them on that and we have highlighted this disagreement to them at every level up to and including the Prime Minister in his discussions with President Sisi.”