Sister of Egyptian Briton on hunger strike urges Sunak to intervene ‘before it is too late’

Family pleads prime minister to get ‘proof of life’

The sister of British-Egyptian prisoner Alaa Abd El-Fatteh has made a plea to Rishi Sunak to make an urgent intervention.

Sanaa Seif called for the government to take action “before it is too late.”

The prime minister sent a letter to Abd El-Fattah’s family but they are concerned No 10’s engagements with the Egyptian president will be too past due.

The 40-year-old writer and activist is on a hunger strike in a Cairo prison and is about to begin refusing to drink water- a move which will drastically reduce his chance of survival.

Sister of Alaa Abd El-Fattah urges Rishi Sunak to do more than ‘lip service’ (Independent TV)

Mr Sunak told Abd El-Fatteh’s family that he will “raise” the issue with president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi after the Cop27 conference concludes however, the activist’s sister said she is worried that her brother “could die while the conference is happening and while the prime minister is over there”.

Speaking to Sky’s Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme, she said her brother already looks “very, very frail” as his health may be taking a fatal turn for the worse.

“I just want to underline that he is putting his life on the line not because he wants to die, but because he wants to live and he is tired of this,” she said.

“We don’t have a way to know, so I would urge the prime minister and the British government to be responsible for getting us proof of life.”

Speaking about the prime minister’s promise to raise the issue, she said: “It gives me optimism that he sent the family a letter and that he understands the urgency, but it has been raised before and I feel like politicians understand when they raise things out of lip service and when they actually care.

Sanaa Seif, the sister of writer Alaa Abd el-Fattah, a British-Egyptian activist imprisoned in Egypt, on a hunger strike outside the Foreign Office in October (PA Wire)

“I’m sure No 10 understands how to do it properly, so I’m hoping it won’t be just lip service, I’m hoping it will be ‘we really care’.

“Britain has a very strong relationship with Egypt so it’s easy: it’s your friend, you can negotiate something with them.”

His sister Ms Seif said: “I know it’s not the prime minister’s mistake, but the foreign office, the embassy, they have been working on this for a very long time, and I feel like they are setting up the prime minister to fail in this trip.”

Mr Abdel-Fattah is an outspoken dissident and a British citizen who rose to prominence with the 2011 pro-democracy uprisings that swept the Middle East and in Egypt toppled long-time president Hosni Mubarak.

Activist Abd El-Fatteh’s family worry he will not make it past Cop27 (AP)

He spent most of the past decade behind bars and his detention has become a symbol of Egypt’s return to autocratic rule.

He also has a seven-year-old son he has been unable to see for a year, and is currently serving his latest five-year sentence – which the peers and MPs labelled “unlawful” in a letter sent to foreign secretary James Cleverly this week.