FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 14th 2023
Family of Alaa Abd el-Fattah files urgent appeal with United Nations Expert Group
International Counsel acting for Alaa Abd el-Fattah and his family have today filed a petition requesting urgent action from the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention over his continuing and unjust imprisonment in Egypt.
A year after Alaa Abd el-Fattah’s story reached a peak of global attention as his 200+ days hunger strike coincided with world leaders flying into Egypt for COP27, Egypt’s most recognisable champion of democracy remains arbitrarily detained, contrary to international law.
Sanaa Seif, Alaa’s sister and lead campaigner for his freedom, says: “My brother’s imprisonment and trial were a sham that was shocking even by Egyptian standards. He was held for two and half years in the most appalling conditions, driving him to suicidal thoughts. When he was finally brought to trial, for sharing a facebook post about torture in prison in Egypt, it was in an emergency court where neither the prosecution nor the defence presented their cases before he was sentenced to five years without the right to appeal. The UN ruled that his previous imprisonment - between 2013 to 2019 - was arbitrary, and I hope it will again.”
The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, which is meeting this week in Geneva for its 98th session, is the UN body of independent human rights experts whose mandate is to investigate cases of deprivation of liberty imposed arbitrarily or inconsistently with the international standards set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, or the international legal instruments accepted by the States concerned.
The Working Group has been asked to consider the Petition under its Urgent Action procedure, and to issue an Opinion concluding that Alaa’s detention is arbitrary, contrary to international law, and to find that the appropriate remedy is a recommendation for Alaa’s immediate release.
Daniel Gorman, director of English PEN, says: “Alaa Abd El-Fattah, an Honorary Member of English PEN, has been unjustly and arbitrarily detained for the past four years, after a manifestly unfair trial. We join the international call for the Working Group to consider his case under the Urgent Action procedure and recognise his ongoing imprisonment as arbitrary. We also call for the British Government to do its utmost to secure consular access and his release and for the Egyptian Government to release him immediately.”
British-Egyptian citizen Alaa Abd el-Fattah is one of the most high-profile prisoners in Egypt and has spent much of the past decade behind bars for his pro-democracy writing and activism following Egypt’s revolution in 2011. The Working Group determined that his previous period of detention was arbitrary in 2016. This time last year (11 November 2022) UN Experts in the Special Procedures of the UN Human Rights Council joined the growing chorus of voices demanding Alaa Abd el-Fattah’s immediate release.
Alaa Abd el-Fattah remains arbitrarily detained in Wadi al-Natrun prison and denied access to consular visits.
Alaa Abd el-Fattah and his Family are represented by leading barristers Can Yeginsu and Ian McDonald before the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.
For more information please contact freedomforalaa@gmail.com or visit www.freealaa.net