Alaa Abd El-Fattah: Hunger strike of jailed Egyptian-British activist might dominate the COP27 summit, Amnesty chief warns

Alaa Abd El-Fattah: Hunger strike of jailed Egyptian-British activist might dominate the COP27 summit, Amnesty chief warns



CNN
 — 

The deteriorating well being of jailed Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah will dominate the upcoming COP27 summit if Egyptian authorities fail to intervene, Amnesty International has warned.

Fears have mounted for the lifetime of author Abd El-Fattah, who escalated a greater than 200-day starvation strike on Sunday by refusing to drink water.

“Let’s be very clear, we’re running out of time. So, if the authorities do not want to end up with a death they should have and could have prevented, they must act now; 24, 48 hours, 72 hours at the most, that’s how long they have to save a life,” Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard informed a information convention in Giza, Egypt, on Sunday.

“If they don’t, that death will be holding on to COP27, it will be in every single discussion, every single discussion there will be Alaa there,” Callamard added.

Abd El-Fattah, who grew to become a number one voice within the nation’s 2011 rebellion, has been imprisoned for a lot of the previous decade. In 2019, he was sentenced to an additional 5 years in jail for allegedly spreading false information after sharing a Facebook put up highlighting human rights abuses in Egyptian jails.

Callamard mentioned that the “extraordinarily severe human rights situation” in Egypt was “at the heart” of the agenda of the COP27 summit, which kicked off in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, on Sunday.

“In other words, yes it’s about climate justice but you cannot deliver climate justice anywhere in the world, including in Egypt, if you don’t have human rights protection,” Callamard informed journalists.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak made a pledge on Sunday to boost the case of Abd El-Fattah to the Egyptian authorities when he attends the summit subsequent week.

In a letter to Abd El-Fattah’s sister, Sanaa Seif, Sunak conveyed his concern concerning the activist’s “deteriorating health,” including his case “remains a priority for the British government.”

According to Sunak, British “ministers and officials continue to press for urgent consular access to Alaa as well as calling for his release at the highest levels of the Egyptian government.”

In a letter written to Sunak and shared with CNN, Seif mentioned: “It is my sincere belief that if Alaa is not released within the coming days that he will die in person, quite possibly while you are in Egypt.”

Abd El-Fattah’s mom was born in London in 1956 and in 2021 he acquired British citizenship, in line with the Free Alaa marketing campaign web site. Since then, it has been his proper to have a consular go to by representatives of the British embassy, a proper that has to date been refused by Egypt, Free Alaa mentioned.

The Free Alaa marketing campaign says Abd El-Fattah has been on starvation strike since April 2.

Exit mobile version