British citizen on hunger strike in Egypt jail says farewell to family amid fears for his life

A British citizen held and tortured in a maximum security prison in Egypt, has said goodbye to his family as his health deteriorates while he enters the second month of a hunger strike demanding the right to a consular visit.

Alaa Abdel Fattah, 40, a British-Egyptian activist who was a leading figure in the 2011 Arab spring uprising, launched an open-ended hunger strike on 2 April, drinking only water with rehydration salts as he demands his right to see embassy officials.

The prison has performed no medical checks on him despite the fact he has lost weight and is very weak.

Mr Abdel-Fattah, a software developer and blogger, told his family during a prison visit on Sunday that he has now been barred from sending letters, a key lifeline of information about his condition, and so needed to say his goodbyes should the worst happen in the month until the next visit.

The secular activist has been jailed by every Egyptian president in his lifetime and has spent most of the past decade behind bars. Together with other family members, he has been repeatedly targeted by the administration of President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi.

He is currently three-and-a-half years into his latest five-year sentence, handed down following a trial labelled a “sham” by rights groups. He was convicted on charges of spreading false news after he shared social media posts that were critical of terrible prison conditions under the military-backed regime.

He was beaten and tortured on entry to Tora prison, in Cairo, and has been barred access to books, writing implements, sunlight, a mattress, exercise and more recently a consular visit. Egypt has repeatedly denied any accusations it treats prisoners poorly or that it holds political prisoners.

Mona Seif, 36, Mr Abdel-Fattah’s sister who is also a British-Egyptian rights defender, told The Independent that Sunday’s visit was “the most intense” she has ever had with her brother.

“He is worried that he is entering his second month of full hunger strike, a month where he will be in complete isolation. He told me that even if he resists, he cannot trust his body will not fail him,” she added.

“He is also worried during this time that they will take advantage of the fact that he is in complete isolation and use extreme force with him, subject him to more torture.”

Mr Abdel-Fattah finally secured his British passport in December. His mother Laila Soueif, a mathematics professor at Cairo University, was born in London.

But Ms Seif said since then they have seen no positive changes in his treatment and in fact have seen his conditions worsen “setting a worrying precedent for other British citizens behind bars in Egypt”.

The security forces in Tora’s maximum-security Prison Two where he is being held have, in recent weeks, stepped up their presence during family visits and around in his cell, which the family say is a worrying sign.

“The banning of letters is a show of force against the UK thinking of speaking on behalf of Alaa,” she added.

“If there isn’t a strong enough response to what is happening, it is affirming what the Egyptian authorities are trying to establish: which is that Alaa is even more vulnerable as a British citizen.”

open image in gallery

The Foreign Office declined to go into details about what specific efforts they were making to secure a consular visit for Mr Abdel-Fattah or his release.

In recent years a handful of activists with dual nationality have agreed to relinquish their Egyptian citizenship as a condition for their release, a legal manoeuvre that allows authorities to deport foreigners accused of crimes.

An FCDO spokesperson said: “We are supporting the family of a British national detained in Egypt and are urgently seeking consular access. We are in contact with the Egyptian authorities.”

The Independent reached out to the Egyptian authorities but received no reply. In the past Egypt and President Sisi himself, have repeatedly denied it has any political prisoners, or that it is crushing freedoms. They have vehemently rejected criticism of its rights record as anti-government propaganda.

Last year, the Egyptian government launched what he called a “human rights strategy”. President Sisi, a key British and American ally, stormed to power in 2014 after presiding over a military coup which ousted his predecessor, the unpopular Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.

In 2019 Mr Morsi dropped dead in court after he was held in conditions that a UN panel of experts concluded “can only be described as brutal”.

In the years since, the Egyptian government has relentlessly targeted dissenters including the most prominent faces of the 2011 uprising, like Mr Abdel-Fattah.

Hundreds of people have been killed and tens of thousands imprisoned, including Mr Abdel Fattah’s younger sister Sanaa, who have both been jailed multiple times over the years.

Under President Sisi he was first sentenced in 2014 after being convicted of taking part in an unauthorised protest and allegedly assaulting a police officer. He was released in 2019 after serving a five-year term but he was shortly rearrested during which time he was stripped, beaten and tortured.

His lawyer Mohammed al-Baqer was then arrested and put in the same case with Mr Abdel-Fattah alongside blogger Mohamed “Oxygen” Ibrahim. Both Mr al-Baqer and Mr Ibrahim have been sentenced to four years in jail.

During the trial his family say he was not permitted interviews with his lawyers who were also not granted access to the case files. He was sentenced after just three sessions.

He is now being held in Tora maximum security prison two – a newly built facility under Mr Sisi – in a block usually reserved for jihadists and extremists.

He requested a consular visit from the British embassy in December, which has so far been denied by the Egyptian prison authorities.

One month into his hunger strike he sent a message to The Independent from prison, where he appeared to express suicidal thoughts.

“In June 2011 I was in a small prison in downtown Cairo during the period where the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces were in charge,” he said the communique sent from jail during the latest visit at the prison last week.

“There was a prisoner with me who had both hands broken severely from torture and was in excruciating pain. Even though he was about to be released, he threw himself out of the window.

“This is how I feel.”

His sister Ms Seif said the treatment of him was so intense and “irrational” that it felt almost “vindictive”.

“Even if they don’t want to intentionally harm him, if he deteriorates, we worry they won’t attend to him [medically].”

She added that the only thing that makes the family feel better is “relying on other prisoners to save him if he tries” to kill himself or if his health fails him.

Amnesty International researcher Hussein Baoumi told The Independent, conditions in Egypt’s prisons were so bad that in 2021 they recorded 56 cases of detainees who died in custody due to medical negligence and four others following reports of torture.

Mr Baoumi said Mr Abdel-Fattah’s case “illustrates the repressive tactics the Egyptian authorities are using to punish human rights defenders”.

“Not only did they arbitrarily detain him on unfounded charges, they sentenced him in an unfair trial in front of an emergency court on the basis of sharing posts.”

“They tortured him when he first arrived and have subjected him to inhumane treatment that is illegal not only under international law but even under Egyptian law.”

Mr Baoumi cited as an example the withholding of books and mattresses which should be permitted for prisoners under Egyptian law.

Ms Seif said he sleeps on a concrete floor and last week he was forbidden from receiving a clean T-shirt, a sheet, a book and a Mickey Mouse magazine on the ground they were “contraband” items. He is also not allowed a watch or to know the time of day.

“Since 2019 he also hasn’t been allowed any time out of the cell so he doesn’t get exposed to direct sunlight,” Ms Seif continued.

“They also emptied all the cells next to him, above and below him to make sure he cannot communicate through the wall.”

The family believes this is because Mr Abdel-Fattah reports every single violation he encounters and because he used to enjoy speaking to other prisoners through the walls.

“He used to give lectures on the history of science, and the history of the human rights movement to the people in the other cells,” she added.

open image in gallery

She said having UK citizenship was the only light at the end of the tunnel for the family now.

“In this complete bleakness it is impossible to even think or imagine a future in Egypt,” she said.

“For the first time when we finalised Alaa’s passport, we started imagining a future for all of our family.

“We hope we can get the support of the FCDO and government.”