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After receiving a letter on Monday proving he was still alive, Alaa Abdel-Fattah’s family announced on Tuesday the receipt of a second letter written by the detainee, in which he claims to have ended his hunger strike.
He returned to eating after a hunger strike that lasted seven months. British-Egyptian political prisoner Alaa Abdel-Fattah has written to his family that he is “no longer on hunger strike,” his sister Sanaa Seif announced on Tuesday, November 15, posting a photo of the handwritten letter addressed to their mother on the prison where he is confined.
In this letter dated Tuesday, Alaa Abdel-Fattah, who will turn 41 on November 18, writes: “I have stopped my strike. I will explain everything on Thursday” and “I want to celebrate my birthday with you on Thursday, bring a cake.” .
We just got this letter. Alaa has broken his hunger strike. I don’t know what’s happening inside, but our family visit is scheduled for Thursday and he’s saying to bring a cake to celebrate his birthday. #FreeAlaa pic.twitter.com/tEk02T5hcW
— Sana (@ sana2) November 15, 2022
His mother Laila Soueif last saw him on October 17, during her monthly family visit. Since then, he has only received letters from prison officials, who have twice refused to allow his lawyer Khaled Ali to visit him. The latter has not seen him since March 2020.
Alaa Abdel-Fattah’s other lawyer, Mohammed al-Baqer, was arrested while defending him in a military court in September 2019, after his arrest.
Both have been sentenced, along with blogger Mohamed Ibrahim, to five years in prison for “false information” after Alaa Abdel Fattah shared on Facebook a text, written by another person, accusing a police officer of torture a prisoner to death.
Seven months of hunger strike
To denounce his imprisonment and that of Egypt’s 60,000 prisoners of conscience, according to NGOs, Alaa Abdel-Fattah only ate the equivalent of 100 calories a day for seven months.
On November 2, the cyberactivist stopped eating and on November 6, at the opening of COP27 in Egypt, he decided not to drink either. His family, who said he was in mortal danger, continued to alert the entire world.
They did not stop demanding proof of life, and they multiplied their actions during the last week, taking advantage of the media exposure of COP27, to raise international public opinion.
In a letter dated November and delivered to the family on Monday, Alaa Abdel-Fattah wrote that he was fine and had been drinking again since Saturday, “proof of life, finally,” according to his sister.
Icon of the 2011 revolution in Egypt that overthrew Hosni Mubarak, Alaa Abdel Fattah, who will turn 41 on November 18, was arrested at the end of 2019 and sentenced to five years in prison for “false information” after posting on Facebook a text, written by another, in which he accused an agent of torture.
In the sights of NGOs and human rights organizations since President Sissi came to power, Egypt ranks 135 out of 140 states in the World Justice Project’s world ranking of the rule of law.
A new request for a presidential pardon
On Friday, November 11, Mona Seif submitted a new application to the commission, arguing that her brother was “the only man in the family after the death of his father,” a great human rights lawyer, and that her son, “who suffers from autism had lost his speech” since his last arrest in 2019.
These arguments appear to have won, as one of the country’s most influential commentators, Amr Adib, a great supporter of Mr. Sissi, advocated clemency “in the interest of Egypt”.
The media close to the government, as well as the authorities, “doubt” that Alaa Abdel-Fattah has ever been on a hunger strike.
His supporters, on the other hand, have not stopped repeating that if they survived so many days without water it was because they “force-fed” him.
Journalist Ahmed Fayez wrote this on Facebook on November 8 and has since been detained and charged with “false information,” according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.
By detaining him for speaking about Alaa Abdel-Fattah, the Egyptian government is revealing its campaign against the press,” the NGO said.
With AFP and Reuters