Laila Soueif, mother of Alaa Abd el-Fattah, has been given one dose of life-saving glucose drip at St Thomas’ Hospital. She started the drip yesterday (Thursday 27th February) afternoon, and the dose was given to her over the course of 12 hours due to the dangers of the intervention at this stage in her hunger strike.

Laila has agreed at the request of her daughters, Sanaa and Mona Seif, to go through this procedure once in an effort to extend her life. She is continuing her hunger strike in protest at her son’s wrongful imprisonment in Egypt, today (Friday 28th February) on day 152, and continues not to eat or consume calories beyond this intervention.

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A consultant doctor at St Thomas’ Hospital in London has written a letter [FULL TEXT BELOW] stating that Laila Soueif, mother of Alaa Abd el-Fattah, is at ‘high risk of sudden death’ and that there is now ‘immediate risk to life’ due to her hunger strike. Last night her blood sugar level dropped to a new low of 1.5 mmol/L.

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An NHS doctor has detailed the impacts of Laila Soueif’s hunger strike in a letter, saying that fluid that she is starting to accumulate in her legs may be the result of a ‘new underactive thyroid gland’ or that ‘she is starting to develop heart failure’.

Laila’s GP described the risk of heart failure as ‘very serious’ and wrote in her letter ‘As a 68 year old woman, she has lost 21kg and perhaps more, this is a huge amount and dangerous’.

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“Mr Lammy should bring Alaa back with him on the plane and reunite him with his son. I have not eaten or taken any calories for 115 days, and I am tired. I am tired of being on hunger strike, and I am tired of sitting outside Downing Street waiting to die. I don’t know how much time I have left, and I desperately want to see my son a free man. 

“I believe that the Foreign Secretary should be able to secure Alaa’s release on this visit and bring my son back to his family in the UK. Please Mr Lammy, bring Alaa back with you. I don’t know if direct negotiations are happening, but we’ve been assured publicly and privately that Alaa is the “number one issue” for the government. So now I can only wait.”

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On Monday Laila will be joined on her hunger strike and her daily visit to Downing Street, by the Australian journalist Peter Greste. Peter was imprisoned in Egypt for one year for his work with Al Jazeera English, and spent much of that year locked up with Alaa.

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Laila Soueif, mother of British-Egyptian citizen Alaa Abd el-Fattah, is today (Monday 13th January) starting daily visits to Downing Street, to remind Prime Minister Keir Starmer to ‘pick up the phone’ to President Sisi of Egypt in order to secure the release of her son from prison.

Today is day 106 of her hunger strike…

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Laila Soueif, the mother of British-Egyptian citizen Alaa Abd el-Fattah, has started a hunger strike in Cairo, in protest at her son’s continued imprisonment in Egypt after the end of his 5 year prison sentence. She does not plan to eat until he is released.

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The sisters of Alaa Abd el-Fattah have criticised David Lammy for failing to meet their family since becoming Foreign Secretary, saying that he ‘made promises to us in opposition, but now in government he won’t even meet us’, at a press conference in London.

Sanaa and Mona Seif were joined by Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe at the briefing, in the run up to Sunday 29th September, which will mark 5 years since Alaa Abd el-Fattah was arrested and detained in Egypt.

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Four months have passed since the historic events of COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh.  Back in November, the name Alaa Abd el-Fattah was on everybody’s lips, with world leaders Rishi Sunak, Olaf Scholz, Emmanuel Macron, Boris Johnson, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the White House’s Jake Sullivan all publicly advocating for his safety and release.  “You Have Not Yet Been Defeated” - a reference to the title of Alaa’s book - became the rallying cry of the conference, as hundreds of members of international civil society staged a protest - a sight unseen in Egypt since the military coup of 2013. 

But now, four months on, there has been no progress on the release of Alaa and the number of political prisoners in Egypt continues to grow.  

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A live-updated rolling press release was maintained through the duration of COP27, which was held in Egypt in 2023.

Alaa had been on a partial hunger strike for 200+ days in the build-up and went on water strike as the conference began.

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Support continues to grow in both houses, across parties

Alaa will return to zero calorie strike on November 1st

His sister, Sanaa, maintaining sit-in outside FCDO in London

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Today, for the second day in a row, Alaa’s mother – Professor Laila Soueif – was told that Alaa is “refusing to come out” for his visit and had no laundry or finished books or letters to send out.

This is highly unusual and a cause for severe alarm. 

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●  21 CSOs urge German leaders to press Egyptian president to “re-open civic space.”

●  Growing international unease at Egypt’s hosting of COP27.

●  Avaaz action scheduled for 11am Monday.

●  Alaa’s sister, Sanaa Seif, now in Berlin and available for interview.

●  Naomi Klein: “climate justice movement will not allow summit to greenwash torment of our fellow activists.”

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Sameh Shoukry, the Foreign Minister of Egypt, will be arriving in London for talks with the Foreign Secretary, Liz Truss, on either Sunday or Monday.

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October 10, 3:45am 

Last night Alaa was able to inform his lawyers, and put it officially on record, that he has been beaten, threatened and robbed in prison. 

Alaa was beaten on being arrested, on arrival in prison and has been repeatedly threatened since. He was told if he spoke it would become worse. 

Alaa filed an official complaint and his family are broadcasting the news.

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