Latest news with #AlaaAbdel-Fattah
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
UN panel says Egyptian dissident illegally detained, urges release
A UN panel of independent human rights investigators said that prominent Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abdel-Fattah is illegally detained by Egyptian authorities and urged the government to release him immediately, his family said on Wednesday. Abdel-Fattah, a key figure in Egypt's 2011 anti-government uprising, was expected to be released from prison after his sentence ended in September, but he remains in custody in Egypt. The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD) said that Abdel-Fattah is arbitrarily detained and that Egyptian authorities have an obligation to release him immediately under international law, according to a legal opinion shared with his lawyers. The panel, which consists of five independent rights experts, "concluded that Alaa's continued imprisonment is arbitrary and illegal." "The UN Working Group has delivered a clear and unequivocal decision: Alaa Abdel-Fattah's detention is arbitrary and in breach of international law. Egypt is now obligated to release Alaa immediately," his lawyer, Can Yeğinsu, said in a statement. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) welcomed the panel's decision and urged Egypt to respect it without further delay. Abdel-Fattah has been on hunger strike for nearly three months. His mother, Laila Soueif, has also been on hunger strike since September 29, the date his prison sentence was due to end. In 2013, Abdel-Fattah was arrested while protesting and jailed for five years. Months after his release, he was arrested again and sentenced to another five years in prison on charges of spreading fake news, an accusation his family dismisses as politically motivated. Egypt's rights record under incumbent President Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi has drawn international criticism amid a crackdown on dissidents.
The Independent
4 days ago
- General
- The Independent
Egypt is illegally detaining Alaa Abd el-Fattah, UN investigation finds
British-Egyptian writer and activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah is being illegally detained in Egypt and should be released immediately, UN investigators have said. In a ruling from the United Nations' Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD), a panel of independent human rights experts found that Egyptian authorities have an obligation to release Mr el-Fattah immediately under international law. In a legal opinion shared with el-Fattah's lawyers, UNWGAD requested that the Egyptian government 'take the steps necessary to remedy the situation of Mr. Abd el-Fattah without delay'. The panel said: 'The appropriate remedy would be to release Mr. Abd el-Fattah immediately and accord him an enforceable right to compensation and other reparations, in accordance with international law.' Mr el-Fattah has spent most of the last decade in prison. He been detained in Egypt since September 29, 2019, and in 2021 was handed an 'unjust' five-year prison sentence for sharing a social media post, according to Amnesty International. He was due to be released last September, but has remained in custody. The UNWGAD panel said Mr el-Fattah's continued imprisonment was illegal on four different grounds: the lack of a warrant at the time of his arrest, and lack of reasons for his arrest; being arrested for exercising freedom of expression; the lack of a fair trial; and the fact his detention was discriminatory, due to his political views. Mr el-Fattah's lawyer Can Yeginsu said: 'The UN Working Group has delivered a clear and unequivocal decision: Alaa Abd el-Fattah's detention is arbitrary and in breach of international law. Egypt is now obligated to release Alaa immediately." Mr Yeginsu said the British government now must take action to free Mr el-Fattah. "With Alaa's continued detention now confirmed as illegal under international law, we are calling on the British government to take Egypt to the International Court of Justice for breach of the Vienna Convention,' he said. 'For too long now the Egyptian regime has withheld access to a British citizen that they are holding illegally and it cannot be allowed to stand." Last week 100 MPs urged Sir Keir Starmer to 'deploy every tool' available to help free Mr El-Fattah, who at the time had been on hunger strike for more than 80 days. The cross-party group of parliamentarians argued in a letter that Mr el-Fattah was a 'political prisoner' who should have been released last year, and added he has been 'acutely unwell' in prison. Mr el-Fattah's mother, Laila Soueif, has been on hunger strike since her son's sentence was meant to end. 'We are requesting an urgent update on progress, given the serious risks both to his health and that of his mother Laila Soueif, who has been on hunger strike in support of him since September 2024,' the letter said.
The Guardian
09-02-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
A hunger strike to force the release of my friend Alaa Abd el-Fattah – it's the ultimate weapon of the powerless
Alaa Abd el-Fattah knows about hunger strikes. When I was locked up in a cell next to him in Cairo's notorious Tora prison in early 2014, he and I would stride the exercise yard discussing Egyptian politics, history, political reform, and – yes – forms of protest and resistance, including starving yourself. Hunger strikes, he explained, are the ultimate tool of the powerless. When all other forms of agency are stripped away, all that remains is to exercise control over the one thing left: your own body. That would become my first lesson in strikes. Alaa is Egypt's best-known political prisoner. He was one of the young, social media-savvy activists who helped move millions of Egyptians on to the streets in the revolution of 2011. Because of his popularity, charisma and capacity to mobilise people, he also has the dubious distinction of being locked up by every regime since he's been alive (including several that lasted barely a year). Soon after I arrived at Tora, Alaa and a group of other activists launched their own hunger strike to force the prison to respect our rights. We were only allowed two hours of exercise a day, and one family visit every two weeks; both in clear violation of Egypt's own laws that said prisoners in pre-trial detention were entitled to four hours of exercise and weekly visits. They had already smuggled out letters to the press announcing the strike. At mealtimes, trays of food would clatter to the floor in the corridor outside the strikers' cells as they shouted their demands. At times it got heated, with the guards insisting they were weighing the food and knew the prisoners were secretly eating (they weren't). But in the end, after a week of rancour, Alaa and his colleagues won. The prison authorities backed down, fearing a ferocious public backlash should any of the prisoners die. And that's lessons two and three in hunger strike strategy: there is no point doing it if nobody knows, and limit your demands to what is within your rights. It is vital to hold on to the moral high ground. That is exactly what his mother, Laila Soueif, is doing now. The extraordinarily resilient, stoic 68-year-old grandmother has been on strike since 30 September, the day after her son was due for release. After being arrested in 2019, Alaa was convicted and sentenced in 2021 to five years for 'publishing false news', in an utterly spurious case widely seen as an attempt to silence a prominent democratic voice. That sentence should have ended on 29 September last year. But with astonishing cynicism, the Egyptian government decided it would calculate his term from the day he was convicted, ignoring time served in pre-trial detention as its own laws require, and adding two years to Alaa's time behind bars. Alaa and Laila are both British-Egyptian dual citizens, which means the British government has a responsibility to make sure their rights are respected. The foreign secretary, David Lammy, advocated for Alaa on a recent trip to Cairo, but so far without even gaining consular access. That is why she and I have been holding daily one-hour vigils outside Downing Street calling on the prime minister to intervene, and why I have also been on my own more limited hunger strike of 21 days to help draw attention to this symbolic case. Laila's demands are straightforward and entirely reasonable. As Alaa did back in 2014, she is simply asking the Egyptian and British governments to respect their own laws and obligations. But hunger strikes are grave undertakings. In a quiet conversation during one of our vigils, Laila told me she is doing this because she is convinced the only way she can get the British and Egyptian leaders to act is to precipitate a crisis. 'I am not suicidal,' she said. 'More than anything, I want to see Alaa again, free and with his own son [also in the UK]. But I also know I must be prepared to keep going to the end if that is what it takes. I have had a good life, and I want him and his sister, who has given up everything to campaign for him, to have their lives back too.' That conviction is something Britain's most famous hunger striker, Bobby Sands, would have recognised. The Irish nationalist died in 1981 after refusing food for 66 days to demand that he and his fellow republican detainees be allowed to wear their own clothes, get regular visits and mail, and be treated as political prisoners rather than common criminals. (Sands, whose last days were dramatised in the Steve McQueen film Hunger, consumed only water, unlike Laila who is also taking electrolytes and salt – both necessary for vital organ functions.) In the 2008 Steve McQueen movie Hunger about Sands's last days, Father Dominic Moran pays him a visit. The priest says: 'You start a hunger strike to protest for what you believe in. You don't start already determined to die. Or am I missing something here?' 'It's in their hands,' Sands replies. 'Our message is clear. They're seeing our determination … Putting my life on the line, Dom, is not just the only thing I can do. It's the right thing.' Nine more hunger strikers would die before the government granted their demands to the remaining prisoners. Laila's unyielding love for her children and for justice is her driving force. She is now weak, and her vital signs are well into the danger zone, but she is as determined as Sands and as convinced of the legitimacy of her campaign. She also believes it will be successful, if not before she dies, then perhaps because of the outrage that must inevitably follow. And that may be the final lesson in strikes: a clear-headed, unwavering sense of purpose. As Sands says in Hunger: 'I have my belief. And in all its simplicity, that is the most powerful thing.' Peter Greste is a professor of journalism at Macquarie University and the executive director of the Alliance for Journalists' Freedom. He was imprisoned in Egypt in 2013 on terrorism charges while reporting for Al Jazeera and released after 400 days. He has just ended his 21-day hunger strike in support of Alaa Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
The Guardian
30-01-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Jailed British-Egyptian dissident may give up both citizenships over failure to be released
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 citizenships, letters written by him 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, on hunger strike seeking his release. The letters came as the family said they had been encouraged by reports that the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, spent most of his meeting with his Egyptian counterpart in Cairo last week making the case for El-Fattah's release. Britain has ben denied consular access to El-Fattah. The UK's envoy to the UN in Geneva, Simon Manley, also publicly criticised Egypt on Monday, saying: 'The continued detention of Alaa Abd el-Fattah, detained for spreading false news, who has now served his five-year sentence including pre-trial detention, is unacceptable.' Manley urged Egypt to end the practice of rotating detainees in pre-trial detention. El-Fattah's letters chart his initial optimism at Lammy's appointment falling away as the Labour government fails to secure his release, and a growing feeling that only the prime minister can elevate his plight to the level required. The perception that the Foreign Office does not have the leverage is reflected in his mother now protesting daily outside Downing Street rather than the Foreign Office. She has lost 21kg on a 122-day hunger strike and her GP has told her her sugar levels put her in serious danger of a heart attack. He wrote to his aunt Ahdaf in August: 'I saw David Lammy finally, an impressive man. Of course we [previously] had a foreign secretary who looked big and impressive so I know that's not the measure of anything. I just thought I'd grab any reason to feel some optimism.' Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion But on 29 September, as it became clear he would not be released after completing his five-year sentence, he wrote to his sister Laila: 'I don't understand how my spirit will tolerate us going into a new form of illegal incarceration – I don't think I've even absorbed the fact that the regime sentenced me twice to five years and I actually served them. In any case, let's see what the prosecutor-general [of Egypt] will say, and what the intentions of His Majesty's new government are.' On 4 December, in a short communal letter to the whole of his famly, he reflected that Keir Starmer met the Chinese president, Xi Jinping 'and spoke about the comrade from Hong Kong [Jimmy Lai]. 'I wonder if he's paying any attention to me. I've said from the start that if they can't or don't want to or don't care to argue about a consular visit then one can't look to them for a release, because it means they basically don't recognise me as citizen and they endorse the local authority not recognising me as a human being. 'So probably the next step is to give up both nationalities and live without either (optimistic, of course, since this assumes life in some future stage).' Briefly, on 30 December he wrote : 'How are you all? I hope the new year finds you well. Of course the fact that a whole year has passed under these conditions does not engender optimism or inspire hope. But, anyway, let's hope it will be a good year for Syria and lighter on the Palestinians.' On 6 January he wrote about measuring the passage of time by observing a trio of cats that visit him in his cell: 'Heba came back and visited me yesterday, Wes is living with us, and Rihana drops in from time to time. 'Their dramas used to be teenage dramas; we weren't part of them but they happened around us, so we had an imagined narrative. Now they come back hungry or hurt or sick or withdrawn or emotional: adult dramas that happen outside our cell so we no longer really understand what's going on.'
