
13 freedom of expression and human rights organisations, including FairSquare, have written to British Foreign Secretary David Lammy as he visits Egypt, calling on him to do his utmost visit British-Egyptian writer Alaa Abd el-Fattah in prison and to return with him to the UK.
In a letter sent this week ahead of a planned visit to Egypt, the NGOs said that a meeting between the Foreign Secretary and Alaa would “send a strong message to the Egyptian authorities that the UK government is committed to ensuring his safe return and protecting the rights of its citizens” and would “provide Alaa with a significant morale boost during this extraordinarily difficult time”.
Alaa’s mother Laila Soueif has been on hunger strike for over 110 days to protest her son’s ongoing and arbitrary detention.
Alaa, a British citizen, has spent most of the past decade in prison in Egypt. Despite having completed his unjust and arbitrary five year sentence on 29 September 2024, the Egyptian authorities have refused to release him, ignoring his time served in pre-trial detention. This situation violates both international legal norms and Egyptian law.
No British official has ever secured a consular visit to Alaa, in violation of the UK’s rights under Article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.
The signatories to the letter, which was sent this week, are:
- Sacha Deshmukh, Chief Executive, Amnesty International UK
- Quinn McKew, Executive Director, ARTICLE 19
- Chris Doyle, Director, Council for Arab-British Understanding (CAABU)
- Jillian C. York, Director for International Freedom of Expression, Electronic Frontier Foundation
- Daniel Gorman, Director, English PEN
- James Lynch, Co-Director, FairSquare
- Yasmine Ahmed, UK Director, Human Rights Watch
- Baroness Helena Kennedy LT KC, Director, International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI)
- Jim Killock, Executive Director, Open Rights Group
- Romana Cacchioli, Executive Director, PEN International
- Fiona O’Brien, UK Director, Reporters Without Borders (RSF)
- Ricky Monahan Brown, President, Scottish PEN
- Menna Elfyn, President, Wales PEN Cymru