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PRIME MINISTER Sir Keir Starmer has been urged “to act now before it’s too late” to free a jailed British-Egyptian pro-democracy activist as his 68-year-old mother weakens from a hunger strike.
Alaa Abd Fattah, 43, has been detained in Egypt since September 29 2019, and in December 2021 was sentenced to five years in prison after being accused of spreading false news.
Today, his 68-year-old mother Professor Laila Soueif, who has been on hunger strike for 117 days in protest over her son’s imprisonment, said Sir Keir had not “deigned to reply” to a letter she sent him last week about her son’s plight.
She warned that her “blood sugar levels are dropping” as low as 2.8mmol/L and said: “I feel more tired every day.
“I have always said that ultimately it is the Prime Minister who must talk directly to President Abdel Fattah Sisi to secure Alaa’s freedom.”
Foreign Secretary David Lammy raised the case with officials in Egypt’s capital Cairo this week, said Downing Street, claiming that the case had been a “focus” of his meetings with the Egyptian government as he visited the country on Thursday.
It said that Sir Keir has also raised the case with President Sisi.
But Ms Souief said that she was “devastated for my son and my grandson” as it became clear that Mr Lammy would not bring Alaa back with him.
“The Prime Minister must know that time is running out,” she said.
Mr Abd Fattah’s sister Sanaa Seif added that the Egyptian foreign affairs minister is “not the man keeping my brother hostage.”
She said: “My family needs Keir Starmer to intervene and talk directly to President Sisi to free Alaa.
“Why is the Prime Minister ignoring our meeting request? Is the Prime Minister waiting until my mum is in hospital to pay attention to us?
“I’m told Alaa is a priority for the British government and I want to believe that but we need Keir Starmer to act now before it’s too late.”
Amnesty International UK’s campaigns director Kerry Moscogiuri criticised Mr Lammy for not visiting Mr Fattah in jail.
“His visit is an opportunity to show that the new government will finally end the long-established pattern of governmental soft-pedalling on cases like Alaa’s and other UK citizens who are arbitrarily-detained abroad and demand their immediate release,” she said.
