LONDON — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has instructed a mom who has been on starvation strike for 140 days that he’ll press the Egyptian authorities to launch her son.
In a press release Sunday, Starmer confirmed that he met Laila Soueif in latest days and mentioned he’ll do “all that I can” to safe the discharge of Alaa Abd el-Fattah, a British-Egyptian twin nationwide who has who has spent greater than 5 years in an Egyptian jail, accused of “spreading false information” on social media.
“We are going to proceed to lift his case on the highest ranges of the Egyptian authorities and press for his launch,” Starmer mentioned.
Soueif, 68, has been on starvation strike since Sep. 29, the day her son was speculated to be launched, consuming nothing however natural tea, black espresso and rehydration salts. After greater than 4 months, Soueif has misplaced round 25 kilograms (55 kilos).
She took her marketing campaign on to the International Workplace in December, tenting out in entrance of it each weekday to ensure officers discover her. When that yielded no outcomes, she switched in mid-January to the gates of Starmer’s workplace — the well-known black door of 10 Downing Road.
“The nice majority of moms are ready to die for his or her kids; it simply takes totally different kinds,’’ she mentioned earlier this month. “Most moms, if their kids are in precise hazard, you’re ready to die.’’
Considered one of Egypt’s most distinguished pro-democracy activists, the 43-year-old Abd el-Fattah has spent a lot of the previous 14 years behind bars since collaborating within the 2011 rebellion that toppled former President Hosni Mubarak.
His most up-to-date crime was “liking” a Fb put up describing torture in Egyptian prisons. Abd el-Fattah has been in custody since September 2019, and was sentenced to 5 years in jail after a trial earlier than an emergency safety court docket.
However when his launch date got here up final September, Egyptian authorities refused to depend the greater than two years he had spent in pre-trial detention and ordered him held till Jan. 3, 2027.
Hundreds of critics of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi have been locked up beneath dire situations after unjust trials, human rights teams say.
