Jailed Egypt dissident’s health ‘deteriorated severely’: family

Jailed British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abdel Fattah’s health has “deteriorated severely”, his sister said Thursday after the first family visit since he ended a seven-month long hunger strike.

In a message on Twitter, Mona Seif said news from the visit was “unsettling”.

“Alaa deteriorated severely in the past two weeks, but at least they got to see him, and he needed to see the family so much”, she wrote.

After seven months consuming what his family said was “100 calories a day,” Abdel Fattah escalated his strike to all food, and then water on November 6 to coincide with the start of the UN COP27 climate summit in Egypt. 

In a letter handed to his family on Tuesday, but dated Monday, he said he had ended the strike.

Thursday was the first time the activist’s mother Laila Soueif was allowed to visit him in nearly a month, after prison authorities repeatedly denied her access last week.

The family has not disclosed more information about the visit or Abdel Fattah’s status, but “will share the full details later,” Seif added.

The pro-democracy blogger is currently serving a five-year sentence for “spreading false news” by sharing another user’s Facebook post about police brutality.

In his short letter on Monday, he did not detail the reasons behind his decision to end the strike, but asked his mother to “bring a cake” to Thursday’s visit.

“I want to celebrate my birthday with you,” wrote the activist, who turns 41 on Friday.

His family — who were concerned authorities might be “force-feeding” him and had feared he would die behind bars — raised questions over how the decision came about.

The dissident’s aunt, novelist Ahdaf Soueif, wrote on Twitter on Tuesday: “So what happened inside? What was negotiated?”

“Alaa had no idea the size of the support surrounding him,” she continued.

Egypt’s turn hosting the UN climate summit in the resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh is coming to an end this week, with Abdel Fattah continuing to make global headlines as an example of what rights groups call Egypt’s “abysmal” human rights record.

World leaders have raised his case in bilateral meetings with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Several speakers at the summit ended with the words “You have not yet been defeated” — the title of Abdel Fattah’s book. It has become a rallying cry for activists, both at the climate talks and posting online, demanding climate justice and human rights.

Rights groups estimate Cairo is holding about 60,000 political prisoners, many of them in brutal conditions and overcrowded cells.