Latest news with #MonaSeif
Daily Mail
15-07-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Mother of a British man jailed in Egypt is forced to quit 10-month hunger strike... and now faces life-threatening condition
A mother has ended a 10-month hunger strike in London after her Egyptian-British activist son was jailed in Cairo for 'spreading false news'. Academic Laila Soueif, 69, began the protest in September 2024 when Alaa Abdel Fattah was due to be freed following a five-year-sentence - but was never released. Her daughter, Mona Seif, confirmed yesterday Ms Soueif was now in hospital beginning a medically supervised process to reintroduce her to nutrition. She said: 'Yesterday, my mother told me she decided to end the hunger strike and will start the necessary medical procedures with the doctors. 'We are not out of danger yet,' she said, adding doctors had warned of the risks of ending prolonged fasting, including a potentially life-threatening condition known as refeeding syndrome. Soueif consumed sugar cubes on Sunday to symbolically mark the end of the strike, according to her other daughter, Sanaa Seif. Abdel Fattah, 43, was a prominent figure in Egypt's 2011 uprising, and has spent most of the past decade behind bars under successive governments. He was most recently arrested in 2019 and sentenced to five years after reposting a Facebook post about police brutality. Abdel Fattah began a partial hunger strike in March in solidarity with his mother after she was hospitalised with dangerously low blood sugar. He is currently consuming only herbal tea, black coffee and rehydration salts. His sister Sanaa said last month he had lost 29 percent of his body weight during the hunger strike. In May, a United Nations panel of experts described his detention as arbitrary and called for his immediate release. Despite diplomatic efforts, including conversations between UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, his case remains unresolved. Since 2022, Sisi's administration has released hundreds of detainees and pardoned several high-profile dissidents, including Abdel-Fattah's lawyer, but the activist himself has been repeatedly excluded. More than 100 parliamentarians signed a letter in May calling for Starmer to take urgent action over the case. It gave a worrying glimpse into Ms Soueif's condition: 'We write with mounting concern about the lack of concrete progress on Alaa's case, more than two months after your call with President Sisi. It added: 'There is also no doubt in our minds that if the health of Laila or Alaa is further damaged by this ordeal, this would have serious long-term implications for the British-Egyptian bilateral relationship' 'Time is in desperately short supply in this case. Alaa has been acutely unwell in prison, experiencing vomiting, stomach pains, dizziness and blurred vision. 'Meanwhile, Laila's health continues to deteriorate. She has not eaten proper food for more than seven months. 'Prime Minister, we remain gravely concerned about the implications for Alaa's family if the path to resolve his case and secure his release cannot be found very soon. 'There is also no doubt in our minds that if the health of Laila or Alaa is further damaged by this ordeal, this would have serious long-term implications for the British-Egyptian bilateral relationship. 'We urge you to deploy every tool at your Government's disposal at this vital stage. We offer our support to your efforts on behalf of Alaa and his family in any way needed.'
South China Morning Post
14-07-2025
- Health
- South China Morning Post
Mother of jailed Egyptian-UK activist ends 10-month hunger strike, family says
Egyptian academic Laila Soueif has ended a 10-month hunger strike protesting against the continuing imprisonment of her son, activist Alaa Abdel Fattah, her family said on Monday. Soueif, 69, began the strike in September 2024 when Abdel Fattah, an Egyptian-British dual national, was due to be freed after serving five years in prison for 'spreading false news' but was never released. Her daughter, Mona Seif, said Soueif was now in hospital beginning a medically supervised process to reintroduce her to nutrition. 'Yesterday, my mother told me she decided to end the hunger strike and will start the necessary medical procedures with the doctors,' Seif wrote on social media. 'We are not out of danger yet,' she said, adding that doctors had warned of the risks of ending prolonged fasting, including a potentially life-threatening condition known as refeeding syndrome. Soueif consumed sugar cubes on Sunday to symbolically mark the end of the strike, according to her other daughter, Sanaa Seif.
The Guardian
11-06-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
250 days on hunger strike: Can Laila Soueif secure her son's freedom?
Laila Soueif, 69, has been on hunger strike in London for more than 250 days in an effort to secure the release of her son, the activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah, from jail in Egypt. As diplomatic pressure mounts, she is now in a critical condition. Alaa's sister Mona Seif describes to Michael Safi the toll that imprisonment has taken on her brother, her mother's determination to do whatever she can to secure his release, and the difficulty of coming to terms with her mother's decision to risk her life. The Guardian's diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour, describes meeting Soueif and says she and her British-Egyptian family have a long history of activism. This includes a reported past incident between her husband, Ahmed Seif, and the Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, that many believe may be influencing Alaa's potentially indefinite detention. The two discuss the attempts made by different British governments to secure her son's release, the Foreign Office's strategic considerations, and possible diplomatic options. Support the Guardian today:
Times
08-06-2025
- Health
- Times
Hunger striker Laila Soueif relents as jailed son is granted visit
Laila Soueif is more than 250 days into a hunger strike which, doctors warn, now puts her at risk of sudden death. Only one thing has a positive physical effect on her damaged body, according to her family: seeing her grandchildren Lana, two, and Khaled, 13. Khaled is the son of Alaa Abd El-Fattah, whose political imprisonment in Cairo is the reason for his mother's protest. Their visits are such a source of joy to Soueif that whenever there is a spike in her blood sugar or energy levels, a doctor friend of the family will ask 'was it Lana or Khaled who visited?', Mona Seif, one of her daughters, said. On Friday Soueif, 69, grudgingly agreed to accept limited glucose treatment after Egypt permitted a family visit for Abd El-Fattah on the first day of Eid al-Adha. The family decided his youngest sister, Sanaa, would go but she would not travel if there was a risk of her mother dying while she was El-Fattah, 43, a British-Egyptian activist and writer, was held in 2019 and has not seen Khaled, who lives in Brighton, East Sussex, since. Soueif's hunger strike started on September 29, the day after Egypt declined to release her son on the scheduled date because the authorities refused to take into account his time in pre-trial detention before he was charged with 'spreading false news and harming Egypt's national interest'. In February, she moved to a partial hunger strike of 300 liquid calories after Sir Keir Starmer pressed for her son's release in a call to President Sisi of Egypt, but has since returned to consuming only water, black coffee, herbal tea and salts following a lack of action. She has lost 40 per cent of her body weight. Speaking from St Thomas' Hospital, opposite the House of Commons in central London, Seif, 39, said: 'In her mind, the most important person in this equation is Khaled, who is autistic.' Her mother was admitted on May 29 with dangerously low blood sugar levels, the second time she has been admitted during her eight-month hunger strike. During Sanaa's jail visit in Cairo, she was allowed 20 minutes with her brother while he sat behind a screen. They were not allowed to hug each other. Seif, who is a cancer researcher in Cambridge and also an activist, said: 'It gave us a slight relief but Mama's body has reached a state where it's no longer about just taking glucose or not. She has consumed her body to a point that she is very weak. She can hardly pull herself up and we don't know how much of this damage is reversible.' • Jawad Iqbal: Lammy is failing to protect British citizens abroad From her hospital bed yesterday, Soueif said the glucose treatment made her feel 'more revived than other days', but 'mentally I am getting more and more pessimistic all the time'. She said: 'In the end I had to take the glucose because I did not want another visit lost. I could see that Sanaa really couldn't leave me without being assured I would not be dead within days. For me now, I question whether there is only one possible outcome.' Soueif has told her family she will stop only when she sees a tangible change in her son's conditions — either his release or perhaps the Egyptian government granting him British consular access for the first time. It was no longer enough for Starmer to be calling Sisi and 'just being nice', Seif said, especially after the United Nations ruled his detention was arbitrary and therefore illegal under international law. She said: 'The Foreign Office doesn't differ its diplomatic tactics whether it is dealing with a country with whom it enjoys a flourishing bilateral relationship, or whether it's an adversary like Iran or Russia. There is something completely wrong about that.' 'I hate to admit this but it kind of pushes Mama's resolve to take this to the end. The only times they started shifting up their pace a bit were the two times she was hospitalised.' • Jailed writer honoured with prestigious literary award The Foreign Office said: 'We are committed to securing Alaa Abd El-Fattah's release. The foreign secretary stressed the urgency of the situation in a call with his counterpart on June 1, and further engagement at the highest levels of the Egyptian government continues. 'We are deeply concerned by Laila's hospitalisation. We remain in regular contact with Laila's family and have checked on her welfare.' Today marks 100 days of Abd El-Fattah's own hunger strike in solidarity with his mother. His sisters also adopted the tactic in 2014 when the government stopped him and Sanaa, both in prison at the time, from seeing their dying father. Seif is concerned that her brother has threatened to 'escalate' his hunger strike, which could involve refusing water. Seif held her daughter's second birthday party at the hospital last weekend so Lana could show her 'sitti' — Arabic for grandmother — her dress. When her mother was at her lowest ebb she focused on Khaled. Seif said: 'She says this kid needs his father far more than you need me now that you are older.'
The Independent
30-05-2025
- Health
- The Independent
Mother of jailed British activist admitted to hospital while on hunger strike
The mother of a British man jailed in Egypt has been admitted to hospital after spending more than 240 days 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.'
