Seven months of hunger strike, and an alarming state of health. Egyptian-British political detainee Alaa Abdel Fattah, who went off food earlier this year in his prison near Cairo, is now “under medical treatment”, the prison authority announced to his family on Thursday. This raises fears that this pro-democracy activist is being force-fed, which is considered by international law to be torture and even a crime against humanity.
“We need our mother to see him, or a representative from the British Embassy, so that we can know what state of health he really is”, launched on Twitter his sister, Mona Seif. Alaa Abdel Fattah only ingested 100 calories a day for seven months.
Since Alaa Abdel Fattah quit drinking on Sunday, the opening day of COP27 in Egypt, his mother, Laila Soueif, has been going to Wadi Natrun prison every day, 100 kilometers northwest of Cairo. , without managing to get any news. The family is worried: has Alaa been transferred to another prison, to the prison hospital or is he simply no longer able to be seen?
“Free them all! »
On Thursday, an officer came out of the jail to tell his mother that the inmate was “under medical treatment” and “the prosecution had been informed”. Neither the family nor the lawyers have been notified, accuses Mona Seif. And no details were given on this ” medical treatment “. For Hossam Bahgat, founder of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), the country’s largest human rights NGO, “that means he is being force-fed”.
While his defenders give him only a few days to live, the mobilization is increasing. Thursday morning, dressed in white like Egyptian prisoners, hundreds of COP27 participants in Sharm-El-Sheikh, more than 600 kilometers south of Wadi Natrun, chanted “Free Alaa! » and “Free them all! » in reference to the more than 60,000 political detainees in Egypt, according to NGOs.
This ultra-sensitive question in Egypt – which points to the 136e place, out of 139 countries, in the world ranking of the rule of law of the World Justice Project – is now essential at COP27. Several Western leaders have demanded his release from Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sissi.
At the same time, a counter-campaign is organized. A deputy took on Sanaa Seif, the other sister of Alaa Abdel Fattah, at COP27 before being expelled by United Nations security. The Egyptian representation in Geneva protested against the UN, which denounced “unfair trials” and “arbitrary arrests”.
A lawyer also filed a complaint against Sanaa Seif for “conspiracy with foreigners” and ” fake news “, according to the campaign which campaigns for the release of his brother. The prosecution has yet to decide whether to accept this complaint. It is for the same chief of ” fake news “ that Alaa Abdel Fattah was sentenced to five years in prison at the end of 2021. He had shared a post, written by someone else, accusing an officer of killing a detainee under torture.