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The British-born mother of an Egyptian political prisoner who has been on hunger strike for 58 days is preparing to meet the foreign secretary, David Lammy, to urge him to secure her son’s release.
Laila Soueif’s son Alaa Abd el-Fattah, a British and Egyptian dual citizen who wrote eloquently about the Arab spring and its aftermath, was jailed for five years for “spreading false news”. He was due to be released in September, but has not been freed.
Soueif, who has lost 16kg since starting her hunger strike, says her body is slowly closing down “like a panda bear in hibernation” and that she is getting slower, getting tired quickly if she climbs stairs. One of her daughters, Mona, says she is starting to live more in the past, and worries because the doctors say older bodies – Soueif is 68 – can deteriorate very fast.
Her diet consists of sugarless green tea, water and rehydration salts. She says the edge of hunger disappeared after the first week.
Mona says it was agreed that her mother wanted to use her body to secure her son’s release after serving his five-year sentence, but it has become what she describes as “an open conversation within the family when this might end”.
Her mother says: “I am still functioning normally because I am in the phase when I am burning more body fat. I think because of my initial weight I can lose another 9kg before it becomes difficult”.
A mathematician and professor, she admits she is “very stubborn” and insists: “I am willing to go as far as it takes. I don’t think the Egyptian authorities react to anything unless there is a real crisis and, increasingly, based on experience, the British authorities seem to be the same.
“I hope it does not get this far, but maybe nothing will happen until I am being carried into the hospital completely collapsed. If it takes that, it is what I will do. In a way, I don’t want to look that far. I don’t want to leave my children with the memory of a martyred mother. I would rather leave them with the memory of a loving mother but I will do what is necessary.”
Her grievance is that her son is probably the single most famous Egyptian political prisoner in jail, and as a result is being victimised. He has been in and out of various forms of detention for about a decade. But on 29 September he completed his five-year sentence for “spreading false news” yet was not released. In a break with precedent the Egyptian authorities said his first two years in detention before trial could not be counted as part of his sentence. She launched her hunger strike immediately afterwards.
“I had been hoping for better things from the Labour government. The Conservatives said they were raising the issue at the highest level, but the Egyptian authorities knew they could wait them out because they would not be around for much longer.
“Now there is a government due to last five years and as shadow foreign secretary David Lammy made very specific recommendations about what should be done to secure my son’s release.”
When she meets Lammy, she intends to remind him of what he said needed to be done to make the Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, realise there was a price to be paid for denying British citizens justice, or even basic consular access.
Lammy, who has himself stood outside the Foreign Office protesting against Alaa’s detention, for instance in 2022, talked about the “tremendous leverage” of the £4bn trading partnership with Egypt. He called the government’s diplomacy on the case “weak” and proposed “serious diplomatic consequences” for the Egyptian government if Alaa was not released. He is now not due to be released until 2027.
Lammy had also said: “I don’t think the government should be announcing a strategic partnership this year when in fact this case is lingering and has gone on for months and months and months and UK officials have not had access to check on his welfare”.
In the Commons on Tuesday Lammy faced calls to impose economic punishment on Egypt. He praised the family’s dedication, and insisted the issue was being raised with Egypt but also pointed to the importance of Egypt due to its proximity to Gaza.
Soueif insists her request for him to be released “is not a big ask. He was sentenced to five years and he has served five years. All we are asking is that the law is applied as it is normally, faulty as the whole process was.”
The Foreign Office insists it does raise the issue on every occasion with the Egyptian president, who is a key figure in the talks to end the Gaza crisis.
Soueif questions whether the president has a personal grudge against her son or her late husband. “I don’t know and I get so tired of second guessing people in authority,” she said. But she points out Sisi has issued presidential pardons for human rights activists before largely due to protests from the Egyptian opposition.
“I find it extraordinary that a weak and divided Egypian political opposition has more influence over the president than the UK government”.
Later this week she will return to see her son in jail in Cairo. She hopes she will bring with her news of a credible plan to secure his release.
