Politicians, students, 130 former prisoners call for Sisi to release Alaa Abd El Fattah immediately

Urgent appeals have mounted in the last hours for the immediate release of detained activist and writer, Alaa Abd El Fattah, as his mother Laila Soueif lies in hospital in London, 245 days into a hunger strike.

Egyptian authorities have imprisoned Abd El Fattah since 2019, in what United Nations experts ruled last week is arbitrary detention.

Among those calling for his release are nearly 130 former prisoners, all of whom faced similar charges to Abd El Fattah in relation to their political views, and who issued a statement on Saturday calling for the writer’s release “today, not tomorrow,” in a plea to “end the suffering of his family and save the life of his mother.”

Soueif's blood sugar dropped dangerously low on Thursday night and she was hospitalized. Doctors say her life is in immediate danger.

The prisoners’ statement was shared by activist Ahmed Douma, who spent a decade in prison for participating in protests before he was granted presidential amnesty in 2023, and by lawyer and activist Mahienour al-Massry who was detained in 2018 while advocating for the release of detainees imprisoned for their political convictions. 

All signatories to the appeal faced charges similar to Abd El Fattah’s, the statement said, including spreading false news, unlawful assembly, joining a terrorist group “or other charges tied to freedom of expression and public participation.”

The statement voiced deep concern over the decline in Soueif’s health. “In her perseverance,” it read, "resounds the perseverance of hundreds of families worn down by imprisonment, and the stories of parents, siblings and children who have tried to make their voices heard only to be met with a wall of silence.” 

Soueif has made repeated appeals, both to the Public Prosecution and to leaders in both Egypt and the United Kingdom, where she and her family hold second nationality. 

In their statement, which remained open for additional signatories, the former prisoners called on authorities to “reconsider the cases of all political prisoners.” 

“We urge the relevant authorities in the Egyptian state to act with the wisdom and responsibility that this critical historical moment demands — and to release Alaa Abd El Fattah, in whatever form they see fit, in a way that befits a strong nation capable of correcting its course without hesitation,” the statement read. 

The signatories argued that releasing Abd El Fattah would do no harm to the state, just as their own releases “have not posed any threat to public safety.” Instead, their release was welcomed both domestically and internationally as “a reflection of a maturing state that comprehends the moment,” the statement added. 

Soueif, a mathematics professor at Cairo University, is on hunger strike to call for her son’s release in 2024. The writer’s sentence was due to come to an end in September but prosecutors refused the families’ petitions to credit the two years he spent in remand detention toward his final sentence.

The Civil Democratic Movement, a coalition of liberal parties, also called for Abd El Fattah’s release at a press conference held Sunday at the headquarters of the Conservative Party. The politicians said that the power to release Abd El Fattah lay in the President’s hands, urging him to include Abd El Fattah, alongside others imprisoned for freedom of expression, in general amnesty lists released for Eid al-Adha.

Lawyer Suzanne Nady, who was in attendance, questioned what more must happen before Egyptian authorities begin upholding the law. “We’ve already exhausted every peaceful route,” she said. 

Cairo University students submitted their own urgent appeal on Sunday to university president Mohamed Samy Abdel Sadek to intervene and save Soueif’s life, who they said  “continued to fulfill her academic and teaching responsibilities at the university with unwavering dedication, up until the moment she departed for London.” The statement, a copy of which Mada Masr reviewed, called for Abdel Sadek to address the president and relevant authorities to secure Abd El Fattah’s release “in recognition of what [Soueif] offered and continues to offer to the university and Egypt’s scientific community.” 

Over the past months, Soueif has repeatedly appealed to authorities in both Egypt and the United Kingdom. But “nothing has changed,” Soueif said in a statement two weeks ago, announcing her decision to resume a full hunger strike after she had temporarily increased her intake to include a 300-calorie liquid supplement daily in March at the advice of doctors. 

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer last contacted President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi regarding Abd El Fattah’s case on May 22. Though Soueif acknowledged Starmer’s intentions in her announcement that she would resume a full hunger strike, she concluded that “nothing is happening” to release her son. “We have used up more days than we ever thought we had. We need Alaa released now.”