UK PM presses Egypt’s Sisi to release jailed activist

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Friday spoke to Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, urging him to release a British citizen and activist jailed in Cairo, Downing Street said.

“The prime minister discussed the case of British national Alaa Abd El-Fattah with President Sisi. He pressed for Alaa’s release, having met his mother Laila Soueif in recent weeks,” Downing Street said in a readout of the pair’s telephone call.

Fattah, 43, a pro-democracy and rights campaigner, was arrested by Egyptian authorities in September 2019 and later given a five-year sentence for “spreading false news”.

He was a key figure in the 2011 revolt that toppled Egyptian autocrat Hosni Mubarak and was given British citizenship in 2022 through his British-born mother.

His family criticised his trial as a “farce” and has demanded he be released having completed his sentence.

Soueif, 68, has been on hunger strike for 152 days in protest against the detention, and has been given a glucose drip after being hospitalised in London, a campaign group said on Friday.

She was admitted to London’s St Thomas’s Hospital late on Monday due to “dangerously new lows” in her blood sugar and sodium levels, as well as her blood pressure.

She had previously turned down artificial glucose, despite being warned there was an “immediate risk to life”, but agreed at the request of her daughters Sanaa and Mona to take one dose “in an effort to extend her life”, campaign group Free Alaa said in a press release.

– ‘Free my brother’ –

Soueif started the drip on Thursday and the dose was given to her over the course of 12 hours “due to the dangers of the intervention at this stage in her hunger strike”, said the campaign group.

“Doctors at the hospital have stressed that this is a temporary intervention, that they cannot guarantee it will extend Laila’s life, and that if it does it will be for a limited time, possibly only a few hours, and if lucky a few days,” they added.

READ ALSO:Egypt’s Sisi urges Gaza reconstruction without ‘displacing Palestinians’

Soueif has lost almost 30 kilograms (66 pounds) since starting her hunger strike, which she has vowed to continue until her son is released.

For weeks, Soueif braved London’s bitter cold to demonstrate outside Starmer’s Downing Street office each working day since the date she says her son should have been released.

Sanaa Seif called on Starmer to take urgent action.

“When we met Keir Starmer he asked us for more time and promised that he would do all he could to free my brother,” she said.

“I don’t think we’ll be able to convince mum to do this again. So we desperately urge the prime minister to use this time well,” she added.