Rishi Sunak has been urged to deliver on a promise to get jailed British writer Alaa Abd el-Fattah released from an Egyptian prison, where he has been denied access to a lawyer or the British consulate.
Monday will mark a year since the PM said he was “totally committed” to resolving the case of Alaa Abd el-Fattah, the pro-democracy writer who has spent most of the past 10 years in prison, accused of spreading false news.
The prime minister wrote to the family ahead of the COP27 climate summit in Egypt, saying Alaa “remains a priority for the British government, both as a human rights defender and as a British national”.
The conference drew international condemnation of Alaa’s imprisonment, with US President Joe Biden using it to raise the case with Egypt’s authoritarian president, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.
But Alaa’s sister Sanaa Seif said her brother “still languishes in prison”, and the British Consulate is still being refused access by Egyptian officials.
“It’s time for the prime minister to deliver on his promise, or to at least show that he’s trying,” Ms Seif told Sky News.
“That heart-warming and hopeful feeling back then, when I got a letter from the prime minister – it’s no longer there, because it’s been a year, nothing has happened.”
Sanaa Seif, herself jailed in Egypt before moving to the UK, returned for COP27 to highlight her brother’s case. Pic: AP
