The sister of Egyptian pro-democracy advocate Alaa Abdel Fattah, who has been in prison in Egypt on and off for most of the last decade, arrived at the United Nations climate summit, known as COP27, in Sharm el-Sheikh from her home in London on Monday to press her brother’s case, a day after he launched a full hunger strike.
“I’m here to do my best to try and shed light on my brother’s case and to save him,” said Sanaa Seif, Fattah’s sister, after arriving in Sharm el-Sheikh early Monday. “I don’t know if we’re talking about hours or days, I’m really, really scared,” she also said. Abdel Fattah was on a partial hunger strike for the 200 days prior to the summit, consuming 100 calories a day in the form of a spoon of honey and a drop of milk in tea.
Egypt has been accused of hiding behind the conference to cover up its poor human rights record.
Fattah, a leader in the 2011 revolution that led to the deposing of Hosni Mubarak, was sentenced in December – after spending nearly three years in pre-trial detention – to five years in prison, on charges of “spreading false news undermining national security.” Last year, Fattah’s family and his Egyptian lawyers accused prison authorities in Cairo’s Tora Prison of torturing him and denying him basic legal rights.
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