, says his family is "terrified" he will die in prisonAt a vigil outside Downing Street in central London, pleas to "Free Alaa" sounded increasingly desperate on Sunday, as jailed activist Alaa Abdel Fattah intensified his hunger strike in Egypt.For six months, the British-Egyptian dual citizen has restricted his food intake to just 100 calories a day. Now, he is said to have stopped eating and drinking entirely, meaning he could soon die.As world leaders, including the UK's Rishi Sunak, meet in Sharm el-Sheikh for the COP27 climate summit, human rights groups are highlighting the plight of an estimated 60,000 political prisoners in Egypt.They include many people I met and interviewed during the years I spent as a Cairo correspondent, before and after the 2011 uprising that overthrew President Hosni Mubarak.Egypt has seen its worst crackdown on dissent in decades under authoritarian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, who came to power in a 2013 military takeover."They've arrested tens of thousands of people, including journalists, human rights defenders, activists, protesters, artists, football fans, politicians - even very unlucky bystanders because some policemen suspected them of being Muslim Brotherhood members or critical of the authorities," says Hussein Baoumi, Egypt researcher for Amnesty International, who now lives outside the country. Many are detained without trial and languish in dire conditions with little or no medical care. Torture is commonplace. It is said that several hundred have died in jail.I remember Alaa, who is now 40, as a young, curly-haired protester on a roundabout in the centre of Cairo's iconic Tahrir Square in 2011, with other bloggers and IT experts. Raised in a family of activists, Alaa had already spent time behind bars for demanding democratic reforms during the era of long-time President Mubarak. He was targeted by the country's interim military rule){kind=link}
At a vigil outside Downing Street in central London, pleas to “Free Alaa” sounded increasingly desperate on Sunday, as jailed activist Alaa Abdel Fattah intensified his hunger strike in Egypt.
For six months, the British-Egyptian dual citizen has restricted his food intake to just 100 calories a day. Now, he is said to have stopped eating and drinking entirely, meaning he could soon die.
As world leaders, including the UK’s Rishi Sunak, meet in Sharm el-Sheikh for the COP27 climate summit, human rights groups are highlighting the plight of an estimated 60,000 political prisoners in Egypt.
They include many people I met and interviewed during the years I spent as a Cairo correspondent, before and after the 2011 uprising that overthrew President Hosni Mubarak.
Egypt has seen its worst crackdown on dissent in decades under authoritarian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, who came to power in a 2013 military takeover.