It was not on the program. The fate of Alaa Abdel Fattah, a political prisoner on hunger strike for many months, became a subject of major concern at COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, embarrassing the Egyptian authorities. Emblematic, his case is far from isolated: three journalists began a hunger strike on Monday, November 7 to demand “the release of all prisoners of conscience in Egypt”, or more than 60,000 people, according to NGOs. Franceinfo looks back on its history.
His family has not received any proof of Alaa Abdel Fattah’s life since Sunday.
Alaa Abdel Fattah, 40, is a figure in the 2011 revolution, which led to the fall of Hosni Mubarak’s regime. He was arrested in 2019 and then sentenced in December 2021 to five years in prison for “spreading false information” for reposting on Facebook a text accusing a police officer of torture. This conviction is the latest in a long list. Since 2013, he has spent seven years in prison, under Hosni Mubarak, his successor Mohamed Morsi and current head of state Abdel Fattah al-Sissi.
With the approach of COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, he completely stopped eating last Tuesday and drinking on Sunday. Her family is worried: since Sunday, she has not received any proof of life.
Since April 2, Alaa Abdel Fattah, President Sissi’s pet peeve, has only ingested a glass of tea and a spoonful of honey a day in his prison in Wadi al-Natrun, northwest of Cairo. The same month, he had obtained British nationality, thanks to his mother, Laila Soueif, born in the United Kingdom.
The international community appeals for clemency
The UN, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, the United States… The list of world leaders worrying about the fate of the detainee continues to grow. On Tuesday November 8, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called on Cairo to release him from prison to avoid “a deadly outcome” on his hunger strike. “His life is in great danger”warned the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk. “We are still worried about the fate and health of Alaa Abdel Fattah and we have said this to the Egyptian government on several occasions”told AFP a spokesman for the National Security Council of the White House.
Previously, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, French President Emmanuel Macron and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres discussed the case of the 40-year-old pro-democracy activist with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Rishi Sunak says he considers Alaa Abdel Fattah as “a priority” and demands that his case be “solved as soon as possible”. Emmanuel Macron, he assures that Sissi has “engaged” that the health of Alaa Abdel Fattah “be preserved”.
Civil society is also putting pressure. “There is not much time left, at best 72 hours, to free Alaa Abdel Fattah. If they don’t, this death will be in all the discussions at COP27”warned on Sunday the secretary general of Amnesty International, Agnès Callamard. “We must release all those detained for simply peacefully exercising their human rights, including Alaa Abdel Fattah”, tweeted environmental activist Greta Thunberg. A few days before the COP, fifteen Nobel laureates, including the French Annie Ernaux and Patrick Modiano (literature), wrote to the organizers to demand his release.
Egyptian authorities embarrassed
A sign that the subject is sensitive in a country regularly singled out for its human rights violations, the press conference at COP27 by Sanaa Seif, the sister ofAlaa Abdel Fattah, was interrupted by a pro-Sissi deputy. The UN security service, the official organizer of the climate summit, had to bring out Amr Darwich who thundered: “We are talking about an Egyptian citizen detained under common law, not a political detainee. Do not try to use the West against Egypt.” Alaa Abdel Fattah “attacked on the army and the police of his country”, he added.
The head of Egyptian diplomacy, Sameh Choukri, president of COP27, stepped up to the plate on Monday evening: Alaa Abdel Fattah “benefit from all the necessary care in prison”, he said on television, adding that Egypt had not formally recognized his British nationality. For Sanaa Seif, these “care” could actually mean that his brother will be “force-fed”.