The family of one of Egypt's most prominent human rights activists, Alaa Abd el-Fattah, said on Monday he had obtained British citizenship as part of a campaign to win his release from prison and spotlight the plight of fellow detainees.
Abd el-Fattah, a leading activist in Egypt's 2011 uprising, was arrested in 2019, and in December was sentenced to five years in prison on charges of spreading fake news and is in his 10th day of a hunger strike against his detention and alleged abuses in prison.
His family says he has been kept in a cell without sunlight for two and a half years, deprived of books and exercise, after being convicted in an unfair trial. They say he has suffered abuse and witnessed worse abuse against fellow prisoners.
