Date of 1st day in prison: 29/09/2019 Released: No Restrictions: None |
Alaa Abdel Fattah is a prominent Egyptian activist, blogger and software engineer who has been at the forefront of the struggle for change in Egypt for many years. He has the distinction of having been arrested not only during Mubarak’s rule but also by the different regimes that have ruled Egypt since the 2011 revolution.
Alaa previously served a five-year sentence for “organising a protest” against military trials for civilians in front of the Shura Council. This case, monitored and considered an unfair trial by EuroMed Rights, was challenged with an appeal in front of the Court of Cassation. The court delivered a final ruling in November 2017 upholding the five-year sentence. During Alaa’s time in detention, his father, renowned human rights and constitutional lawyer, Ahmad Seif, died at 60 and his younger sister, Sanaa, was tried – also for protesting – and served 14 months of a two-year jail sentence.
Following a ruling of the Court of Cassation on 15 October 2018, Alaa was fined with LE 30,000 in a second case for tweets allegedly questioning Egypt’s judiciary independence. The case included other 24 prominent human rights defenders – including Amr Hamzawy, as well as opposition figures.
On 29 March 2019, he was finally released and returned home. However, he was given probation measures which entailed spending 12 hours every night for the next five years locked inside a police station from 6pm to 6am.
Six months later, on 29 September 2019, Alaa was arrested from Dokki police station where he was carrying out his 12-hour police monitoring. His family were informed that he had been taken to the state security prosecution where he was interrogated in the presence of his lawyers. One of his lawyers, Mohamed el-Baqer, was subsequently arrested. His arrest was part of a wider arrest campaign which saw over 4,400 people detained or disappeared since 20 September following demonstrations calling for President al-Sisi to step down. He has reportedly been subjected to torture in custody since his arrest, including repeated beating and being forced to remove his clothing. The UN human rights office has expressed its concerns over his arrest.
Alaa was on hunger strike for over a month beginning on 12 April 2020 to protest his detention and the ban on family visits to detainees since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak. He stopped the strike once he learnt that his pre-trial detention started being renewed by the judge once more, after several weeks of the renewal session being postponed. His sister, Sanaa, was arrested again on 23 June 2020 and released in December 2021 after a 1-year prison sentence.
On 23 November 2020, blogger Alaa Abdel Fattah and his lawyer Mohamed El-Baqer were placed on the terrorism list for a period of five years following the requests filed by the Public Prosecutor in case 1781/2019.
The European Parliament’s urgency resolution of 18 December 2020 on the deteriorating situation of human rights in Egypt called for the immediate release of Mr Alaa Abdel Fattah and other human rights defenders and activists.
On 1 March 2021, Alaa Abdel Fattah reported hearing sounds of prisoners being tortured in the Tora prison before the Public Prosecutor. However, the claim was not investigated and was later denied by Egyptian authorities.
Alaa Abdel Fattah was referred to trial with Mohamed el-Baqer and Mohamed Oxygen in case 1228 of 2021 in front of the Emergency Court in October and November 2021, facing the charge of “spreading false news”. The three human rights defenders’ lawyers were not allowed to make copies of the case file, nor to present a defence. The Emergency Court maintained jurisdiction over the case despite the end of the state of emergency declared by President Al Sisi on 25 October 2021. On 20 December 2021, Alaa was sentenced to five years in prison for sharing a tweet denouncing torture in Egyptian prisons.
On 1 December 2021, 7 UN Special Rapporteurs and experts called on Egypt to halt the misuse of counter-terrorism measures against civil society activists, lawyers, journalists and human rights defenders, and to immediately release three of those arbitrarily detained, including Alaa Abdel-Fattah, Mohamed El-Baqer and Mohamed Oxygen.
As from the first day of Ramadan, on 2 April 2022, Alaa started a hunger strike in protest of his detention conditions, and calling for accountability for the abuses he endured and the violations that he witnessed. 10 days later, his family announced that he had obtained the British citizenship in December 2021, stemming from his mother’s birth in the United Kingdom. As he is a dual citizen, he and his family are requesting a British consular visit in prison, which has not been allowed. On 18 May, he was transferred to the new prison “Wadi el Natroun”, in which he could seep on a mattress for the first time in years, but where the lights are turned on 24/7 for permanent monitoring of inmates. He has not been allowed to see his lawyers, but on 26 May he was finally allowed to receive books from his family. Though, the Egyptian authorities have not acknowledged his hunger strike, and are publicly denying it. The National Council for Human Rights visited Wadi el Natroun prison, but did not have access to Alaa’s cell.
In the meantime, towards the end of May 2022, some information leaked from the security authorities confirmed that Alaa would not be included in the pardon list, because he, amongst others, is classified as a “troublemaker who does not comply with the prisons’ regulations.” Additionally, the prosecution still refuses to acknowledge his British citizenship, due to “a lack of evidence”, and therefore refuses to allow a British consular visit for Alaa, which is one of his demands.
His family is campaigning for the support of the British authorities to obtain his release. On 15 June 2022, his sister, Mona Seif, announced that she joined his hunger strike since her visit on 12 June. She ended it 25 days later. She has been circulating a petition for Alaa’s release. From 18 October until 6 November 2022, Sanaa and Mona Seif, Alaa’s sisters, held a sit in outside the British Foreign Office in London to try and secure his release. They met with Foreign Office officials and spoke to the Foreign Secretary and the Minister of State for the MENA.
In a letter to his family, on 1 November 2022, Alaa declared that he would escalate his hunger strike by stopping any calorie intake, and that as from 6 November, with the start of COP27, he would stop drinking water too. He was at risk of dying behind bars and went through a near death experience after which he decided to end his hunger strike on on 14 November 2022. Shortly after, he was allowed to receive an MP3 from his family and listen to music again.
On 5 November 2022, in a letter to Sanaa Seif, the British PM affirmed the British government’s commitment to resolving Alaa’s case, and that they continue to press for an urgent consular visit. Alaa and his family are still waiting for this visit to be granted. Several UN experts called for his immediate release.
On 3 July 2023, over 100 UK Parliamentarians wrote to Foreign Secretary James Cleverly asking why the Foreign and Development Office travel advice to Egypt does not mention that the UK is currently unable to guarantee consular access to British Citizens in Egypt’s prisons.
On 14 November 2023, Alaa’s family filed an urgent appeal to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention over his continuing and unfair imprisonment.
For updates on his situation, follow the Facebook page Free Alaa.