#FreeAlaa: Will hunger strikes release Alaa Abdel-Fattah?
Calls for the release of the 43-year-old Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abdel-Fattah are gaining momentum again.
This week, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, or UNWGAD, stated that Abdel-Fattah's continued imprisonment in Egypt is illegal.
Following an 18-month investigation, the group argued that no warrant or explanation was present at the time of the arrest, and that Abdel-Fattah was imprisoned for exercising his freedom of expression — a legal right in Egypt.
The report concludes with the call on the Egyptian government "to take the steps necessary to remedy the situation without delay…to release Abdel-Fattah immediately and accord him an enforceable right to compensation and other reparations, in accordance with international law."
Cairo is yet to comment on the ruling, but for Abdel-Fattah's family, who is based in London, the report comes "at an important moment," Omar Hamilton, Abdel-Fattah's cousin, told DW.
Abdel-Fattah's mother, Leila Soueif, has been on hunger strike in support of her son's release for around 250 days. This week, the health of the 69-year-old British citizen deteriorated massively.
"Our family is in the hospital every day," Hamilton told DW.
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"While we're doing what we can to keep her as comfortable as possible, she is mentally very strong and very determined."
Last week, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer ramped up his support as well. Starmer phoned Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi for the second time this year to discuss the situation of Alaa Abdel-Fattah who has been a British citizen since
2022. Starmer called for clemency and said that the Egyptian government was causing the family great anguish.
Neither further details, nor the Egyptian reaction were published.
According to the British newspaper
The Guardian
, a diplomatic source said that Egypt doesn't recognize Abdel-Fattah's dual citizenship.
The activist has been imprisoned for around a decade. In 2015, he was sentenced to five years for participating in a 2013 protest. In September 2019, he was rearrested during a widespread crackdown on political dissent.
and handed a five-year sentence for "spreading false news" in December 2021.
Instead of releasing him in September 2024 at the end of his sentence if you count his pretrial detention, authorities ordered to keep him in prison until January 3, 2027. They argued that the two years he spent in pretrial detention are not to be counted toward his sentence, even though the time span exceeded Egypt's legal pretrial length.
Abdel-Fattah has also started a hunger strike himself some 100 days ago.
'Time is running out' for activists mother
In addition to the latest report by the UN and the support by Starmer, scores of
human rights
organisations, too, have restarted campaigning for Abdel-Fattah's release, on social media at #FreeAlaa and politically.
Earlier this week, 21 rights organisations, including English PEN and Human Rights Watch, sent a joint letter to Egyptian President el-Sissi.
One of the signatories, Yasmine Ahmed, UK Director at Human Rights Watch, told DW that "time is running out."
"The prominent writer and activist has been detained in Egypt unlawfully for over a decade as his mother Leila faces an imminent risk of death in a hospital in London," she said. "The UK government must use every point of political and diplomatic leverage they have to push Egypt to release the British citizen Alaa Abdel-Fattah."
While Abdel-Fattah may be the most prominent political prisoner in Egypt, he is far from the only one.
Rights organisations estimate that between 65,000 and 70,000 political prisoners are kept behind bars. Officially, though, Egypt has never stated a number and ranks most of these prisoners as "terrorists."
Meanwhile, the latest report by Egypt's National Council for Human Rights, which was installed in 2003 to further Egypt's national human rights strategy, stated "notable progress" on civil and political rights for the period of June 2023 to June 2024.
"Nevertheless, several human rights issues persist and require intensified efforts and expedited action to overcome the associated challenges," the report states.
Dire rights situation in Egypt
For Christian Achrainer, a researcher at Denmark's Roskilde University who has extensively published on Egypt, these words of progress and calls for intensified efforts sound hollow.
"The human rights situation in Egypt has not changed much, it is still very bad," he told DW.
In his view, none of the governmental bodies that are tasked with improving the country's human rights situation have had a positive impact.
"Slightly positive developments have been counteracted by other measures," Achrainer said. "Some political prisoners were released, while others were re-arrested."
"In general, freedom of press and freedom of expression remain extremely restricted, and people continue to be imprisoned for expressing their opinions," Achrainer said.
Egypt's political leverage
Despite increasing international attention and calls for Abdel-Fattah's release, Egypt "is not impressed," Achrainer observes.
"Cairo is fundamentally aware of its very good negotiating position with Europe at the moment," he explained.
"The multi-billion Euro migration deal in 2024 clearly shows that Europe is prepared to look the other way on human rights issues if Egypt ensures that fewer refugees and migrants come to Europe."
Also, Cairo's contacts with all parties to the conflict in Gaza, the fight against terrorism, economic interests and the potential role in conflict-ridden neighboring countries like Libya and Sudan boost Egypt's position as key player in the region.
"All of this means that the regime knows that it is not forced to act in the case of [Abdel-Fattah] or in the area of human rights in general," Achrainer said.
'All political prisoners should be freed'
Despite this dire rights situation, Egyptians have been submitting petitions and official telegrams to the presidency with their name and address on it asking for Abdel-Fattah's release, Omar Hamilton told DW.
"And people all around the world hold vigils and protests," he added.
Since Leila Soueif has been hospitalised last Thursday, Abdel-Fattah's family and supporters also gather daily in front of St Thomas' hospital in London.
"There's an incredible amount of energy pouring in from around the world," Hamilton said. "And not only us, but all people believe that Alaa should be freed, actually that all the political prisoners should be freed."
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