The mother of an imprisoned British Egyptian activist was hospitalized and is at risk of sudden death, said a doctor, while her hunger strike to ask for the release of her son has reached 151 days.
Laila Soueif, mother of Alaa Abd El Fattoh, one of the best -known political prisoners of Egypt, survived from the end of September in the water, rehydration and sugar -free slopes and coffee to push for his release from a prison in Cairo, said his family.
Ms. Soueif, 68 years old, mathematics and professor who is also a British citizen, started her hunger strike after it became clear that Mr. Abd El Fattoh, 43 years old, who had served a five -year sentence, would not have been released as scheduled for September.
He told the New York Times last autumn that he would not retire to his campaign to put pressure on the British government to use his diplomatic and economic ties with Egypt to secure his liberation. “When people ask:” What do you think they do? “I say” I’m creating a crisis, “he said in an interview.
Mrs. Soueif lives in Cairo, but spent time in Great Britain during her hunger strike and on Monday she was admitted to a London hospital after blood sugar and blood pressure went down to dangerously low levels.
A doctor who treats Mrs. Soueif at the hospital in St. Thomas and Guy wrote that her conditions were now extremely serious, in a letter shared by her family and supporters on social media.
“I explained the seriousness of his conditions and serious damage that derive from the continuous fasting”, wrote the doctor, whose name was drawn up by the public version of the letter. He added: “Now there is an immediate risk for life, including further deterioration or death” and that Mrs. Soueif “is in particular at high risk of sudden death with continuous fasting”.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer, speaking in Parliament on Wednesday, said he would continue to raise the case at the highest levels of the Egyptian government and push for the release of Abd El Fattoh.
“It is an incredibly difficult situation for them,” said Starmer, adding that he had met the family a few days ago and “will do everything possible to ensure the release in this case. This includes phone calls if necessary.”
Mr. Abd El Fattoh became a prominent voice of the Egyptian revolt in 2011 which overturned the authoritarian sovereign of the country, Hosni Mubarak. But an Islamist political party took power in the first democratic presidential elections of Egypt, and then a widespread repercussions to her domain allowed President Abdel made El-Sisi to later grasp power. Since then, Mr. El-Sisi has reduced dissenting voices.
Mr. Abd El Fattoh spent most of the last decade in prison after two previous arrests, in 2006 for protesting for judicial independence and then in 2011 for a critical article for the Egyptian military. He was arrested again from 2013 to March 2019 on charges of organizing an illegal protest. Months later, in September 2019, he was arrested and sentenced again in 2021 to five years for sharing a Facebook post on abuse in prison.
He had been released from prison in September 2024, but the Egyptian authorities said they would not count his two years of preliminary possession against his sentence, an increasingly routine practice in the country. Mr. Abd El Fattoh is now scheduled for the release in 2027, although he and his family fear that he can be kept indefinitely.
While in prison, he successfully asked British citizenship through his mother, who is a national double.
Several British legislators wrote a letter to Mr. Starmer last month, exhorting him to “intensify the efforts throughout the government to make Alaa’s urgent liberation a reality”.
But the pressure of the Egyptian authorities in individual cases can return against, they said diplomats in Cairo. The British have pushed consular visits with Mr. Abd El Fattoh and asked for his liberation since he gained British citizenship in 2021, but they were not successful. And the time of concern for Abd El Fattoh’s family is running out.
“If Keir Starmer would take the phone and talked to President Sisi, I think he can guarantee the release of my brother and save my mother’s life,” said Sanaa Seif, Mr. Abd El Fattoh’s younger sister, said in a statement, adding: “Every moment waiting means that my mother is more likely to die”.