A group of Nobel Prize winners and prominent activists has called on Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to release British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abdel Fattah, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Fifty individuals, including Nobel laureates Narges Mohammadi and Orhan Pamuk, signed an appeal urging Sisi to grant clemency to the 43-year-old writer and human rights advocate. His mother, Laila Soueif, has been on hunger strike for 156 days to demand his release.
The letter, which was also signed by authors Arundhati Roy and Elif Shafak, as well as representatives from Reporters Without Borders, PEN International, and Human Rights Watch, called for a presidential pardon.
“A presidential pardon is not just justice; it is an act of humanity. Let history remember not a tragedy, but a reunion: Alaa free, holding his son, and Laila Soueif breaking her fast with the family she so longs to be with,” the letter stated.
Abdel Fattah, a key figure in Egypt’s 2011 revolution that led to the downfall of President Hosni Mubarak, was sentenced to five years in prison in 2019 for “spreading false news” after posting about alleged torture in Egyptian prisons.
His mother, Soueif, 68, has been on hunger strike since September, when her son was supposed to be released. She remains hospitalised in London due to dangerously low blood pressure and blood sugar levels but has accepted two glucose drips since Friday.
The UK’s Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, raised Abdel Fattah’s case during a call with Sisi last week, prompting Soueif to say she was cautiously optimistic about her son’s release.
Egypt’s presidential pardons committee, reactivated in 2022, has granted amnesty to several high-profile political prisoners, including Abdel Fattah’s lawyer, Mohamed al-Baqer.
