On The Foreign Scene
The family of jailed Egyptian-British hunger striker Alaa Abd el-Fattah said on Tuesday they had not heard from him since he had been due to stop drinking water two days ago, and the United Nations human rights chief warned his life was in great danger.
According to reports, Abdel-Fattah, a prominent activist and blogger, was sentenced in December 2021 to five years on charges of spreading false news and has been on a hunger strike for 220 days, since April 2, against his detention and prison conditions.
In an escalation that coincided with the arrival of world leaders in Egypt for the COP27 climate conference, he informed his family that he would stop drinking water on Sunday.
Abd el-Fattah’s mother said on Tuesday she had waited for a second day outside the jail northwest of Cairo where he is being held to receive a weekly letter from him, but got nothing. She also sais that Prison officials said he was refusing to send out a letter.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk called for the immediate release of Abd el-Fattah who he said was in great danger as his dry hunger strike puts his life at acute risk.
In a statement from its mission to the United Nations in Geneva, Egypt said Volk’s statement violated the principles of impartiality and objectivity and seemed to rely on unsubstantiated information.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who attended the COP27 climate talks on Monday, told Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi that he hoped to see the issue resolved as soon as possible.
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