World leaders at Cop27 in Egypt must demand the release of Alaa Abd El-Fattah

Sanaa Seif, the sister of writer Alaa Abd El-Fattah, protests outside the Foreign Office in London on 18 October 2022. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

You probably haven’t heard of Alaa Abd El-Fattah – so let me tell you about him. He’s a British citizen. He’s a father to a 10-year-old son. He’s a dearly loved brother. He’s a writer and a pro-democracy activist in Egypt, whose powerful and emotive blogging played a part in catalysing the nation’s seismic 2011 uprising.

He’s also been unlawfully imprisoned by the Egyptian authorities for more than nine years – that’s a quarter of his life – and he has faced persecution and psychological torture. Now he could have just days to live.