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The mother of imprisoned British-Egyptian writer Alaa Abd El-Fattah has vowed to continue her hunger strike despite deteriorating health and warnings from doctors, saying she is prepared to die in her campaign to free her son.
Speaking outside Downing Street in Westminster, where she has maintained a vigil, Professor Laila Soueif revealed she is “feeling weaker” after – when we spoke – 110 days without food. The 68-year-old academic said she should be “teaching Gazan students online” rather than protesting, but sees no alternative as diplomatic efforts have yielded nothing so far.
Abd El-Fattah remains in Cairo’s maximum security Tora prison despite completing his five-year sentence in September. He was convicted after sharing a Facebook post about a prisoner who died after being tortured – a charge his mother dismisses as “absurd.”
The case has become a symbol of both Egypt’s crackdown on dissent and what critics see as Western governments’ failure to hold their allies accountable for human rights abuses.
And Prof Soueif says the campaign for his release is urgent – not just because of her hunger strike, but due to his 13-year-old autistic son’s need for care.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy is in Egypt today (Thursday) for meetings with the Egyptian Government, where he is expected to push for El-Fattah’s release. His family will be waiting for news with bated breath.
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Interview with Alaa’s Mother in Full
Josiah Mortimer: How are you feeling? It must have been an incredibly difficult 110 days.
Prof Laila Soueif: I’m feeling weaker, and I tire more quickly. There are no concrete results.
JM: Have you heard much from the UK Government or representatives directly?
LS: We speak to the Foreign Office. They spoke to my daughter yesterday. She met with Foreign Office officials, but practically speaking, it gets you nowhere. They’ve had discussions with the Egyptians, but it doesn’t work that way. You need to get a green light from the president to start the process. Until that happens, you just go round in circles.
The last we heard is that Mr Starmer had written. We haven’t heard anything about the response. So we don’t know where we are.
JM: How is your son Alaa Abd El-Fattah doing? Have you heard anything from within the prison?
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LS: I received a letter a few days ago. I saw him on the 8th January. Visits are only 20 minutes. We took a mobile phone where everything was registered for security. We told him what’s happening. He feels better knowing about the solidarity campaigns, the meetings and so on. At least he knows something’s happening. For him, sitting there, nothing is happening at all. We don’t talk much about what worries him because he knows me better than that.
JM: It’s not your first protest.
LS: From the beginning, he was told, “Your mother, she’s unlikely to change her mind. Just support her.”
JM: Foreign Secretary David Lammy said last week that it’s his top priority.
LS: I believe he believes that. But I wasn’t happy.
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JM: What would you like to see?
LS: He said there’d been a letter from the Government to President El-Sisi, which is good because at least it’s going to the right address. But he didn’t say there’d been a response. I suspect there hasn’t been a response. If that’s true, it’s very worrying.
I was quite pleased about [the UK the national security adviser] Jonathan Powell being in Egypt on January 2. But he only met the Foreign Secretary [about this case]. The Egyptian Foreign Secretary is not the right person.
JM: They’re going through the wrong channels, perhaps.
LS: Yes, and I understand the Foreign Secretary must follow protocols, but it has to move beyond that. While the [Gaza] hostage situation is being resolved, he implied that pushing Egypt would have a negative impact on negotiations, which is completely untrue. I don’t know if he’s accepting a narrative from his Foreign Office officials or simply making excuses.
JM: Do you think the Egyptian Government is using Alaa’s imprisonment as leverage with the UK government?
LS: The UK Government should have far more leverage than the Egyptian government. Egypt is a weak country in a horrible economic crisis, dependent on Western governments. The British should have leverage. Alaa should be important as a British citizen.
He’s not a threat to anyone. This paranoia from the Egyptian Gover