The life of Alaa Abdel-Fattah, one of the best-known Egyptian activists for human rights, hangs in the balance after he added that of thirst to the hunger strike, a thread that is intertwined at COP27, in progress these days in Egypt, where interventions in its defense are multiplying. The host country is under pressure: after the appeals of French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the UN also urged the Egyptian president to release his feared political prisoner: 40 years, many years in the past crossing the prison doors several times, dual Egyptian and British citizenship, Fattah is in serious danger of life after seven months of hunger strike, to which since Sunday, the opening day of the climate summit, he added that of thirst.
The family has asked in vain for any proof that he is still alive but has not been certain for days. While fears for his life grow by the hour, the greats gathered in Sharm to share the fate of the planet in the face of global warming find themselves witnessing an embarrassing ‘affaire’ of human rights. To defend the fate of Alaa Abdel-Fattah, her twenty-eight-year-old sister Sanaa Seif, also with dual Egyptian and British citizenship, director and activist, has also arrived in Sharm, she too has already been arrested and released several times. The last time on December 23, 2021, released after serving an 18-month sentence for “spreading false news through social media” and “offending a public official”, three days after her brother was sentenced to five years for dissemination of fake news.
“Our mother spent all day yesterday outside the prison trying to get any proof that Alaa is still alive. But in the evening they told her that he refuses to write, ”she said at a press conference, interrupted by the shouts of a pro-Sisi MP, Amr Darwish. “We are talking about an Egyptian citizen in common prison, not a political prisoner, do not try to use the West against Egypt,” Darwish said before being escorted out by the United Nations security forces. The whole family is working hard between London and Cairo to get news and press for his release, or at least for his extradition to the UK, so that he can be tried there. “We are lucky to have so many people defending Alaa and talking about him and so maybe he can be saved. But time – concluded Sanaa – is running out “