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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Patrick Wintour Diplomatic editor

British-Egyptian dissident mulls giving up citizenship over failure to be released

Older woman holding large photo of man with placards saying #Free Alaa
Alaa Abd el-Fattah’s mother, Laila Soueif, holding a photo of her son on 20 January. She is on hunger strike demanding his release. Photograph: Isabel Infantes/Reuters

Alaa Abd el-Fattah, the British-Egyptian political dissident held in a Cairo jail for more than five years, has reached such a state of despair over the UK’s inability to secure his release that he has contemplated renouncing both his British and Egyptian citizenship, his letters reveal.

His family have given permission for some of his private letters to be published to show his situation and his concern for his 68-year-old mother, Laila Soueif, on hunger strike seeking his release.

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