To denounce his imprisonment, the activist had stopped eating and drinking in early November for the opening of COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh.
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“I ended my hunger strike.” Egyptian-British political detainee Alaa Abdel Fattah wrote that he was no longer on hunger strike in a letter delivered to his family on Tuesday (November 15th). In this missive dated Monday, the prisoner, who will be 41 years old on November 18, writes: “I want to celebrate my birthday with you on Thursday, bring back a cake.” His relatives therefore hope to see him soon, after having been deprived of visits for a month.
In the letter, the pro-democracy blogger, icon of the Arab Spring and pet peeve of Abdel Fattah Al-Sissi’s regime, does not explain why he has started eating again. He only asserts: “I’ll see you in the parlor and I’ll tell you everything then.” It was Mona Seif, his sister, who posted online the short letter delivered to his mother in prison. “I will only be at peace once my mother and my sister have seen Alaa with their own eyes”she wrote on Twitter.
“What happened inside? What was negotiated?” also wonders his aunt, the famous writer Ahdaf Soueif. “Let’s not forget that Alaa has no idea of the support around him on the outside. He is in prison, with no information other than what [ses geôliers] decide to give it to him.”
So what happened inside? What was negotiated? Let’s remember that Alaa had no idea of the size of the support surrounding him. He is on his own, in prison, with no information except what they choose to give him. #FreeAlaa #FreeThemAll https://t.co/DYYiUiwRBX
— Ahdaf Soueif (@asoueif) November 15, 2022
To denounce his incarceration and that of the 60,000 prisoners of conscience in Egypt, according to NGOs, Alaa Abdel Fattah swallowed only 100 calories a day for seven months. On November 2, he had stopped eating and on November 6, at the opening of COP27 in Egypt, he had decided not to drink either. His family said he was in mortal danger.