Who Is Alaa Abdel-Fattah? Jailed Activist In Egypt Whose Hunger Strike Is Dominating COP27 Conversation
Amnesty International head Agnes Callamard said Sunday COP27 could be stained by Alaa Abdel-Fattah's death if Egypt does not release him soon. The activist has stopped drinking water, his family said.
With COP27 proceedings getting underway in Egypt, the head of Amnesty International has demanded the release of the Arab nation's leading human rights activist Alaa Abdel Fattah, who is on a hunger strike in an Egyptian prison. Agnes Callamard, the secretary-general of Amnesty International, Sunday said Egypt had only 72 hours to save the life of the dissident activist who is also a UK citizen. She said COP27 could be stained by Alaa's death if the authorities in Egypt do not release him soon, news agency Associated Press reported.
“If they do not want to end up with a death they should have and could have prevented, they must act now,” Callamard said while speaking to the media in capital Cairo, according to the AP report.
Egypt is hosting the climate summit in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh.
Callamard is a participant at the summit. She told the media that she was going to push for action on rights issues related to climate change, "including loss and damage or reparations from richer countries to vulnerable nations suffering from climate change", the AP report said. Egypt is a proponent of the cause. She added that she would also ask for immediate action on opposition figure Alaa Abdel-Fattah and other political prisoners inside Egypt's jails. According to Callamard, the number of such prisoners could run in "tens of thousands".
Callamard said the “extraordinarily severe human rights situation” in Egypt was at the heart of the COP27 agenda, a CNN report said.
Abdel-Fattah, who had been on a partial hunger strike for more than six months now, escalated his protest this week, refusing also water, the AP report quoted his family as saying. He had been consuming only 100 calories a day, and had written to his family last week that he would also give up water on November 6, coinciding with the first day of COP27.
Quoting his aunt and awar-winning writer Ahdaf Soueif, the report said Abdel-Fattah stopped drinking water Sunday morning, and that they are concerned about his health. The jailed activist communicates with his family through weekly letters. He is allowed to meet the family occasionally, and the next visit is due on November 17.
The family, however, fears he would die without water if not released during the climate summit.
The authorities have not issued any comment on the matter. According to an AP report of November 2, they had denied that Abdel-Fattah was on a hunger strike in jail.
📢 Today #COP27 opens amidst a human rights crisis in #Egypt. Away from Sharm El-Sheikh, 1000s are unjustly jailed in horrid conditions, including Alaa Abdel Fattah, who after 219 days has escalated his hunger strike and stopped drinking water.
— Amnesty International (@amnesty) November 6, 2022
#FreeAlaa, free them all ✊
Who Is Alaa Abdel-Fattah?
Alaa Abdel-Fattah, an influential blogger, rose to limelight during the pro-democracy uprisings that swept the Middle East in 2011. Egypt saw long-time President Hosni Mubarak getting toppled. However, with Egypt returning to autocratic rule under President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, Alaa Abdel-Fattah's has been among the dissenting voices that have seen punitive action. As a result, the 40-year-old outspoken dissident has spent most of the past decade incarcerated.
According to the AP report, Abdel-Fattah comes from a family of well-known activists, lawyers and writers. His London-born mother Laila Soueif is a math professor at Cairo University. His late father was a rights lawyer, while his sisters are also political activists. The family announced in April that Abdel-Fattah had obtained British citizenship through his mother. His sisters are also UK citizens. The family has since criticised UK leaders for not pushing harder for a consular visit to him while in detention.
@AgnesCallamard met with Laila Souief activist & mother of prisoner of conscience Alaa Abdel Fattah, whose life is at serious risk after 219 days without food & 1 day without water. Egypt’s authorities are responsible for his life. @AlsisiOfficial must free him NOW #FreeAlaa pic.twitter.com/xt63tlmIEH
— Amnesty MENA (@AmnestyMENA) November 6, 2022
Abdel-Fattah was first sent to jail in 2014 after he was convicted for taking part in what the authorities said an unauthorised protest, and for allegedly assaulting a police officer. Released in 2019, he was arrested against later that year after a crackdown following a few anti-government protests. In December 2021, he was convicted for spreading false news and was sentenced to another five-year term, according to reports.
Other charges against Abdel-Fattah include misusing social media and links to banned group Muslim Brotherhood, which was declared a terrorist organisation in 2013.
Demand For Release Of Alaa Abdel-Fattah
Sanaa Seif, Abdel-Fattah’s younger sister who has been trying to mobilise support for his release, landed in Sharm el-Sheikh early Monday. She came from London through Istanbul in Turkey, the AP report said, quoting her family.
"My brother just had his last glass of water in prison. Please keep his story alive, it's not over. He can be saved," she posted on Twitter before her flight. Her post said she was coming to Sharm el-Sheikh to attend the climate summit. "The Egyptian regime claims civic space exists in #COP27 , I'll be testing that," she wrote.
My brother just had his last glass of water in prison. Please keep his story alive, it's not over. He can be saved.
— Sanaa (@sana2) November 6, 2022
This afternoon I'm flying to Sharm, I have a civil society pass. The Egyptian regime claims civic space exists in #COP27 , I'll be testing that.#FreeAlaa pic.twitter.com/e2FsfRGmft
After arriving in Egypt, she said: “I’m here to do my best to try and and shed light on my brother’s case and to save him.” According to the AP report, she said she was worried about her brother and would put pressure on world leaders attending COP27 to get him released.
Seif, also a UK citizen and rights defender who had been jailed before, could take part along with Callamard in Egypt’s human rights situation on the sidelines of the summit, the report said. She had recently staged a sit-in outside Britain’s foreign ministry headquarters, as part of a campaign to push the UK to take up Abdel-Fattah's case.
Dear @JamesCleverly
— Sanaa (@sana2) November 2, 2022
We need my brother back. Will you do your best to save him?
I've been sleeping outside your office for two weeks. Will you have the courtesy to meet with me? Do you even have a plan?#FreeAlaa pic.twitter.com/WMkW6V8Nab
Meanwhile, Amnesty International is not the only one asking for Abdel-Fattah's resease from prison. Similar demand has come from several other quarters too.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who will be in Egypt to attend COP27, said Sunday he would raise the case of Abdel-Fattah with the Egyptian authorities, CNN reported.
His family released a letter on Sunday, claiming that they had received it from Sunak. The letter said the summit would be an opportunity to raise Abdel-Fattah’s case “with the Egyptian leadership”. Quoting the letter, the AP report said Sunak will “continue to stress to President (el-Sissi) the importance that we attach to the swift resolution of Alaa’s case and an end to his unacceptable treatment”.
According to the report, Sunak's office has confirmed the contents of the letter.
Yesterday's protest in #Berlin with @XRBerlin @FFF_Berlin and Occuoy27 demanding the German government stop aiding #greenwashing the Egyptian government ahead of #cop27 demanding #freethemall and #freealaa @FreeThemAll_ @FreedomForAlaa pic.twitter.com/sDyuyqfAvE
— Occupy COP27 (@OccupyCop27) November 5, 2022
قبل بدء مؤتمر قمة المناخ #COP27 بشرم الشيخ:
— Free Alaa (@FreedomForAlaa) November 5, 2022
أكثر من ٥٠ مشرع بالكونجرس الأمريكي يطالبون بايدن بالضغط على السلطات المصرية للإفراج عن سجناء الرأي و لفتح المجال العام أمام المجتمع المدني اثناء و بعد انعقاد قمة المناخ #COP27 بشرم الشيخ. pic.twitter.com/kAV8tC864Z
I do think it’s time @FCDOGovUK @jamescleverly rediscover the lost art of leverage before our pandering costs this British citizen his life#Egypt is denying our sacred right of access to a citizen in need while gaslighting us into ever more desperate efforts to please https://t.co/Fay05mgoGr
— John Casson (@JohnCassonUK) October 31, 2022
Earlier, as many as 15 Nobel Literature laureates called upon world leaders to put pressure on Egypt to free all political prisoners, including Abdel-Fattah. In a letter sent to the United Nations, and also the European Council, and the heads of state in France, UK, and the United States, among others, they urged the leaders “to use every opportunity” during the conference “to bring the voices of the unjustly imprisoned into the room”, Al Jazeera said in a November 2 report.
The laureates including Turkish author Orhan Pamuk, American poet Louise Gluck, Tanzanian novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah, and British author Kazuo Ishiguro, said the world leaders should use their plenary address to name the imprisoned and call for their freedom, inviting Egypt "to turn a page and become a true partner in a different future: a future that respects human life and dignity".
“We urge you to use the opportunity that is now in your hands to help those most vulnerable, not just to the rising seas, but those imprisoned and forgotten – specifically in the very country that has the privilege of hosting you,” the letter read, according to the Al Jazeera report.
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