He has been placed “under medical treatment” according to the authorities, which makes his supporters fear that it is nourished by force, a practice contrary to international law.
Le Monde with AFP
Seven months of hunger strike, and an alarming state of health. Egyptian-British political detainee Alaa Abdel Fattah, who ceased to eat at the start of the year in his prison near Cairo, is now “under medical treatment”, prison authority told his family on Thursday. This makes it fear that this pro-democracy activist will be nourished by force, which is considered by international law as torture and even a crime against humanity.
“We must see it, or a representative of the British embassy, so that we can know in what state of health he really is,” said his sister on Twitter, Mona Seif. Alaa Abdel Fattah only ingested 100 calories per day for seven months.
Since the Abdel Fattah has stopped drinking on Sunday, on the day of the COP27 opening in Egypt, her mother, Laila Soueif, went to Wadi Natroun prison every day, 100 kilometers north- West of Cairo, without managing to obtain news. The family is worried: was Alaa transferred to another prison, to the prison hospital or is it simply no longer in a state to be seen?
” Free them all! “
Thursday, an officer left the prison to tell his mother that the detainee was “under medical treatment” and that “the prosecution had been informed”. Neither the family nor the lawyers were warned, accuses Mona Seif. And no details were given on this “medical treatment”. For Hossam Bahgat, founder of the Egyptian Personal Rights (EIPR) initiative, the country’s largest human rights NGO, “that means that it is force”.
While his defenders only give him a few days to live, the mobilization is accentuated. Thursday morning, dressed in white like the Egyptian prisoners, hundreds of participants in the COP27 in Charm-el-Cheikh, more than 600 kilometers south of Wadi Natroun, chanted “Liberate Alaa!” And “Free them all! “In reference to the more than 60,000 political detainees in Egypt, according to NGOs.
This ultra -sensitive question in Egypt – which points to the 136
At the same time, a counter-campaign is organized. A deputy took Sanaa Seif, the other sister of Alaa Abdel Fattah, at COP27 before being expelled by the United Nations security. The Egyptian representation in Geneva protested against the UN, which denounced “inequitable trials” and “arbitrary arrests”.
A lawyer also filed a complaint against Sanaa Seif for “conspiracy with foreigners” and “false information”, according to the campaign that campaigns for the liberation of his brother. The prosecution must still decide if it receives this complaint. It was for the same chief of “false information” that Alaa Abdel Fattah was sentenced to five years in prison at the end of 2021. He had shared a post, written by someone else, accusing an officer of ‘Having killed an inmate under torture.