The UN has urged Egypt release a British blogger who has been imprisoned and on a seven-month hunger strike immediately, claiming his life is “in great risk.”
A well-known Egyptian-British activist and blogger named Alaa Abd el-Fattah was given a five-year prison term in December 2021 for disseminating false information.
The 40-year-old has been on a 220-day hunger strike in protest of his incarceration and living conditions.
Abd el-Fattah informed his family on Sunday that he would quit drinking water.
In response to Volker Turk’s request for Abd el-immediate Fattah’s release, his family informed world leaders at the COP27 climate conference on Tuesday, November 8, that they had not heard from him since he talked about his intention to stop drinking water.
‘We don’t know where he is. We don’t know if he’s alive,’ Abd el-Fattah’s sister Sanaa Seif said during the UN climate summit, held at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
Turk said Abd el-Fattah’s life is ‘in great danger’, adding: ‘His dry hunger strike puts his life at acute risk.’
Volk’s spokeswoman in Geneva responded when asked whether there was a chance he may have already passed away given the absence of communication: “We are really concerned for his health and there is a lack of transparency as well regarding his current state.”
When Abd el-mother Fattah’s went to the jail outside of Cairo on Monday, she claimed that despite spending hours there, she did not get his weekly letter.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak expressed his desire to see the matter handled as quickly as possible to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi while attending the COP27 climate negotiations on Monday.
But Seif claimed that when she asked Britain for evidence that her brother was still alive, they had not responded.
‘I asked the British authorities to get us some proof that Alaa is alive and conscious, I did not get any response.’
When asked about the situation on Monday, Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry told CNBC that Abd el-medical Fattah’s needs would be met by the prison.
Amr Darwish, an Egyptian delegate to COP27, asserted that Abd el-Fattah had been found guilty in court and questioned his family’s request for international assistance, which pro-government individuals have characterised as meddling in Egypt’s domestic affairs.
In the subsequent crackdown against Islamists, communists, and liberals alike, Abd el-Fattah, a software developer from an active family, was detained and has spent the majority of the time since then in jail.
