Latest news with #AlaaAbdEl-Fattah
South Wales Guardian
3 days ago
- Health
- South Wales Guardian
Mother of jailed British activist admitted to hospital while on hunger strike
Laila Soueif's family said she had been admitted to St Thomas's Hospital in London on Thursday night with dangerously low blood sugar levels, but continues to refuse medical intervention. Ms Soueif has been on hunger strike for 242 days in protest against the imprisonment of her son, Alaa Abd El-Fattah, who has been in jail in Egypt since September 2019. Speaking to reporters outside the hospital on Friday, Ms Soueif's daughter Mona Seif said she feared her mother was on the brink of death and urged the Prime Minister to act immediately. Ms Seif said: 'The bottom line is we are losing her and there is no time. 'Keir Starmer needs to act now, not tomorrow, not Monday, now.' In December 2021, Mr Abd El-Fattah was sentenced to five years in prison for spreading false news and should have been released last year. UN investigators have declared his imprisonment in breach of international law and earlier this year Sir Keir Starmer promised he would 'do everything I can' to ensure his release. Ms Seif said: 'If he is unable to deliver, if he is unable to bring my brother (home), then he needs to show that Britain is angry, that Britain is not going to let go of its citizen.' In a statement on Friday, Ms Soueif's family said she had received glucagon treatment, which induces the liver to break down stored fat to obtain glucose, but continued to refuse treatment that would provide her with calories. She has lost 42% of her bodyweight, now weighing 49kg, and has not eaten food since September 29 2024. She was previously admitted to hospital in February, with doctors warning she was at 'high risk of sudden death', and in early March agreed to move to a partial hunger strike following a call between Sir Keir and Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi. But she resumed her full hunger strike on May 20, saying: 'Nothing has changed, nothing is happening.' Mr Abd El-Fattah has been on his own hunger strike for 90 days following his mother's admission to hospital in February. The Prime Minister raised Mr El-Fattah's case with the Egyptian president again in a call last week, and Middle East minister Hamish Falconer discussed his release with Egypt's foreign minister Badr Abdelatty on Sunday. A spokesperson for the Foreign Office said: 'We are concerned to hear of Laila's hospitalisation. We remain in regular contact with Laila and her family and have checked on her welfare. 'We are committed to securing Alaa Abd El-Fattah's release and continue to press for this at the highest levels of the Egyptian government.'
North Wales Chronicle
4 days ago
- Health
- North Wales Chronicle
Mother of jailed British activist admitted to hospital while on hunger strike
Laila Soueif's family said she had been admitted to St Thomas's Hospital in London on Thursday night with dangerously low blood sugar levels, but continues to refuse medical intervention. Ms Soueif has been on hunger strike for 242 days in protest against the imprisonment of her son, Alaa Abd El-Fattah, who has been in jail in Egypt since September 2019. Speaking to reporters outside the hospital on Friday, Ms Soueif's daughter Mona Seif said she feared her mother was on the brink of death and urged the Prime Minister to act immediately. Ms Seif said: 'The bottom line is we are losing her and there is no time. 'Keir Starmer needs to act now, not tomorrow, not Monday, now.' In December 2021, Mr Abd El-Fattah was sentenced to five years in prison for spreading false news and should have been released last year. UN investigators have declared his imprisonment in breach of international law and earlier this year Sir Keir Starmer promised he would 'do everything I can' to ensure his release. Ms Seif said: 'If he is unable to deliver, if he is unable to bring my brother (home), then he needs to show that Britain is angry, that Britain is not going to let go of its citizen.' In a statement on Friday, Ms Soueif's family said she had received glucagon treatment, which induces the liver to break down stored fat to obtain glucose, but continued to refuse treatment that would provide her with calories. She has lost 42% of her bodyweight, now weighing 49kg, and has not eaten food since September 29 2024. She was previously admitted to hospital in February, with doctors warning she was at 'high risk of sudden death', and in early March agreed to move to a partial hunger strike following a call between Sir Keir and Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi. But she resumed her full hunger strike on May 20, saying: 'Nothing has changed, nothing is happening.' Mr Abd El-Fattah has been on his own hunger strike for 90 days following his mother's admission to hospital in February. The Prime Minister raised Mr El-Fattah's case with the Egyptian president again in a call last week, and Middle East minister Hamish Falconer discussed his release with Egypt's foreign minister Badr Abdelatty on Sunday. A spokesperson for the Foreign Office said: 'We are concerned to hear of Laila's hospitalisation. We remain in regular contact with Laila and her family and have checked on her welfare. 'We are committed to securing Alaa Abd El-Fattah's release and continue to press for this at the highest levels of the Egyptian government.'
Leader Live
4 days ago
- Health
- Leader Live
Mother of jailed British activist admitted to hospital while on hunger strike
Laila Soueif's family said she had been admitted to St Thomas's Hospital in London on Thursday night with dangerously low blood sugar levels, but continues to refuse medical intervention. Ms Soueif has been on hunger strike for 242 days in protest against the imprisonment of her son, Alaa Abd El-Fattah, who has been in jail in Egypt since September 2019. Speaking to reporters outside the hospital on Friday, Ms Soueif's daughter Mona Seif said she feared her mother was on the brink of death and urged the Prime Minister to act immediately. Ms Seif said: 'The bottom line is we are losing her and there is no time. 'Keir Starmer needs to act now, not tomorrow, not Monday, now.' In December 2021, Mr Abd El-Fattah was sentenced to five years in prison for spreading false news and should have been released last year. UN investigators have declared his imprisonment in breach of international law and earlier this year Sir Keir Starmer promised he would 'do everything I can' to ensure his release. Ms Seif said: 'If he is unable to deliver, if he is unable to bring my brother (home), then he needs to show that Britain is angry, that Britain is not going to let go of its citizen.' In a statement on Friday, Ms Soueif's family said she had received glucagon treatment, which induces the liver to break down stored fat to obtain glucose, but continued to refuse treatment that would provide her with calories. She has lost 42% of her bodyweight, now weighing 49kg, and has not eaten food since September 29 2024. She was previously admitted to hospital in February, with doctors warning she was at 'high risk of sudden death', and in early March agreed to move to a partial hunger strike following a call between Sir Keir and Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi. But she resumed her full hunger strike on May 20, saying: 'Nothing has changed, nothing is happening.' Mr Abd El-Fattah has been on his own hunger strike for 90 days following his mother's admission to hospital in February. The Prime Minister raised Mr El-Fattah's case with the Egyptian president again in a call last week, and Middle East minister Hamish Falconer discussed his release with Egypt's foreign minister Badr Abdelatty on Sunday. A spokesperson for the Foreign Office said: 'We are concerned to hear of Laila's hospitalisation. We remain in regular contact with Laila and her family and have checked on her welfare. 'We are committed to securing Alaa Abd El-Fattah's release and continue to press for this at the highest levels of the Egyptian government.'
Daily Record
5 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Record
Holidaymakers warned of increased arrest risk as destination becomes 'police state'
A former British ambassador has called for the Foreign Office to caution against travel to the country Former British ambassador to Egypt, John Casson, has urged the Foreign Office to issue a travel warning for Brits considering trips to Egypt, citing heightened risks of arrest in the popular tourist destination. Serving as the ambassador from 2014 to 2018, Mr Casson labelled the nation a "police state" that is "violent and vindictive" during his appearance on BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Thursday. Mr Casson's remarks come in the wake of a UN panel's decision, which found that Alaa Abd El-Fattah, a British-Egyptian pro-democracy campaigner jailed since December 2021 on charges of disseminating false news, is being unlawfully held by Egyptian authorities. The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD) declared that Mr Abd El-Fattah's incarceration was politically motivated. Speaking to the Today programme, Mr Casson said: "This is a police state in Egypt: it's violent, it's vindictive," and added, "It's abusing a British citizen, Alaa Abd El-Fattah – tortured him. It's kept him in prison on bogus charges. It's causing a lot of distress to his family." He further criticised the Egyptian government's interference with the British embassy's operations: "But it's also abusing the rights of the British Government to do its normal business, and it's blocking our embassy for the most fundamental function of visiting and supporting British nationals when they get into trouble. "And that's why, with other parliamentarians today... I'm calling now for our Government to use all the tools it has to protect not just Alaa Abd El-Fattah, but all British citizens in Egypt. And that means, especially now, our official travel advice needs to caution against travel to Egypt." Mr Casson, alongside prominent figures such as Baroness Kennedy of the Shaws and former Middle East minister Lord Hain, urged a government review of the travel advice for Egypt in The Times, stressing the gravity of the situation following the ordeal of Brit Alaa Abd El-Fattah. Speaking to the BBC, Mr Casson saidt: "After four years as ambassador in Egypt, if a friend or family came to me today and said, 'Should we be booking our winter sun in Egypt?', I would be saying you're taking a real risk. "If you get into any kind of difficulties, you post the wrong thing on social media even, there's no guarantee (of) your right to be protected. "There's no guarantee of due process, and we can't even be sure that the British embassy will be able to visit you or support you in the normal way." Mr Casson recounted chilling memories: "If I just think back to the four years I spent in Egypt, there was a Cambridge University student who was tortured to death over a period of several days in police cells. "There was a British woman who went on for a beach holiday in Egypt, and found herself in prison for a year because she had too many painkillers in her luggage. "There was a string of child kidnap cases where British children were abducted by their estranged Egyptian parents, and the Egyptian authorities did not give protection to the rights of those children or the rights of their British families." Italian PhD student Giulio Regeni was kidnapped and murdered in Cairo in 2016. Italy accused Egyptian police officers of his murder, a claim Egypt refuted. In 2017, British national Laura Plummer was handed a three-year sentence in an Egyptian jail for bringing 290 Tramadol tablets into the country. Mr Casson told the BBC: "Of course, our civil servants are always cautious about offending a country like Egypt, and that's why we're really saying this: this needs political will. "It takes political will and a readiness to take real action and say that Egypt can't have it both ways. Egypt pretends to be a friend. "It depends on British visitors to keep its economy afloat, and we need to demonstrate that that is not compatible with abusing our citizens and blocking our embassy. We can't have business as usual." Last week, 100 MPs and peers urged Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to "deploy every tool" available to help free Mr Abd El-Fattah.
The Independent
27-02-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Starmer pressed in the Commons to secure release of British-Egyptian activist
The Prime Minister has been pressed to secure the release of a jailed British-Egyptian pro-democracy activist, amid concerns over his mother's 'failing' health. Alaa Abd El-Fattah, 43, has been detained in Egypt since September 29 2019 and, in December 2021, was sentenced to five years in prison after being accused of spreading false news. His mother, Laila Soueif, who is on hunger strike, was taken to St Thomas' Hospital in central London on Monday evening where she faces an 'immediate risk to life', according to her doctor. In the Commons, independent MP John McDonnell urged Sir Keir Starmer to contact Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in order to 'save' Mr Abd El-Fattah and his mother's life. Sir Keir said he would do everything he can to ensure Mr Abd El-Fattah's release, during Prime Minister's Questions. The Free Alaa campaign had also called on Sir Keir to pick up the phone and call the Egyptian president 'before it's too late'. Mr McDonnell, MP for Hayes and Harlington, said: 'I thank the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary for their efforts to secure the release of Alaa Abd El-Fattah, the human rights campaigner, the British human rights campaigner, who has been imprisoned in Egypt now for over 10 years. 'The Prime Minister will know, because he's met the family, that his mother is on the 150th day of her hunger strike, and her health is failing rapidly. 'Could I ask the Prime Minister to pick up the phone to President Sisi and seek the release of Alaa to save his life, also that of his mother's?' Sir Keir replied: 'I thank him for raising this really important case, and as he says, I did meet the mother and the family just a few days ago, and it is an incredibly difficult situation for them. 'And I can assure him, I will do everything I can to ensure the release in this case, and that includes phone calls as necessary. I've raised it before, I'll raise it again, we've raised it, and will continue to do so. 'I gave my word to the family that that's what … I will do, and I will.' Ms Soueif has been subsisting solely on black coffee, restorative salts and herbal tea during her hunger strike and has lost more than 20 kilograms (about three stone) in weight. On Monday, she was admitted to hospital after her blood sugar levels, blood pressure and sodium levels recorded 'dangerously new lows', the campaign said. It added that Ms Soueif is not taking glucose treatment as a result of her protest action. She was put on a saline drip due to the low sodium readings and the hospital is continuing to monitor her.
