The family of the jailed British-Egyptian democracy activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah say they have received proof of life, in the form of a letter in which he says he has ended his water strike after six days but will continue his hunger strike.
“I’m sure you’re really worried about me,” Abd el-Fattah wrote to his mother, in a cautiously worded letter as his communications are heavily monitored by the Egyptian authorities.
The activist has now been on hunger strike for more than six months in protest at his detention conditions and a lack of consular access by British officials, initially consuming 100 calories a day before escalating to a full hunger strike in the week before Cop27, and then ceasing drinking water the day the conference began.
In his letter dated Saturday, he said: “From today I’m drinking water again so you can stop worrying until you see me yourself. Vital signs today are OK. I’m measuring regularly and receiving medical attention.”
Egypt’s public prosecutor said Abd el-Fattah received a “medical intervention” last week after the authorities previously refused to acknowledge his hunger strike.
The activist’s 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?!”
Abd el-Fattah’s family received the letter while his mother and lawyer waited for hours at the gates of Wadi el-Natrun prison in the desert outside Cairo. His lawyer Khaled Ali has been repeatedly denied access to his client despite receiving visitation permits, amid concerns about attempts to keep the case from public view.
Abd el-Fattah is Egypt’s highest-profile political prisoner, whose hunger strike has drawn attention to the estimated 65,000 political detainees held in Egypt as the country hosts the Cop27 climate talks in Sharm el-Sheikh. He has spent the majority of the past decade in prison for sharing a social media post about torture, and last year gained British citizenship while incarcerated. Despite the reassurances his letter provided, his family say British officials in Cairo and London have failed to push for consular access.
The British foreign secretary, James Cleverly, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Monday that the government was keeping “a very, very close eye” on Abd el-Fattah’s 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.”
Omar Robert Hamilton, an author and Abd el-Fattah’s cousin, said: “I personally do not understand why the British ambassador isn’t sitting outside the prison with Alaa’s mother and his lawyer. They are being outmanoeuvred by the Egyptians in every department, to the degree that the foreign secretary is now repeating the Egyptian government’s talking points on British radio. There is huge international attention on Alaa now. The whole world was willing the British to secure some proof of life, to step up in some way – but they did nothing.”
James Lynch, a former British diplomat who heads the rights organisation FairSquare and who travelled with Seif to Cop27 last week, said the letter from Abd el-Fattah showed the Foreign Office should be doing more.
“This is a moment of relief for Alaa’s family, but it should be a chastening moment for the Foreign Office. You know, it’s not clear that they had much to do with this. It really is a moment where they need to reassess their approach,” he said.
He added: “James Cleverly said this morning that Egypt doesn’t recognise Alaa’s British nationality. Britain gave him nationality in December 2021. That’s nearly a year ago. So really, that statement implies that Britain has made almost no progress at all in 11 months working on this case.”
