In the largest show of support for Alaa Abd el-Fattah since Labour came to power in the UK, 107 MPs and members of the House of Lords have written to the Foreign Secretary urging him to “use the full range of diplomatic tools” to secure Alaa’s safe release.

In the letter, sent by Labour MP Stella Creasy and featured in The Guardian, the constituency MP for Alaa’s sister Mona, the parliamentarians remind the Foreign Secretary that Alaa was supposed to be released on 29 September 2024 when his most recent five year sentence ended.

Alaa was arrested on 29 September 2019 and spent more than two years in jail before his five-year sentence was handed down and ratified by President Sisi in January 2022. However, the authorities, without offering any justification, are refusing to consider Alaa’s lengthy pre-trial detention as “time served” and insist that his release date is not until 2027. Egyptian law, specifically Articles 482 and 484 of the Egyptian Code of Criminal Procedure, explicitly requires that time served in pretrial detention is deducted from prison sentences.

Alaa’s mother Laila Soueif has been on hunger strike since the Egyptian authorities refused to release Alaa. She is now on day 78 of her hunger strike.

The cross-party group, including former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, former Labour Middle East minister Lord Hain, and Liberal Democrat Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Calum Miller, recognised the Foreign Secretary’s pledge to improve the government’s response to the detention of British nationals abroad, adding that securing Alaa’s release “would be the strongest possible demonstration of the depth and force of this commitment.” 

Laila Soueif is carrying out a daily one hour sit-in outside the FCDO to remind the Foreign Secretary of Alaa’s case and the need to see him safely released back to the UK. She will be outside the Foreign Office between 10am-11am each working day of the week until the health effects of her hunger strike mean she is unable to do so.