Britain Must Call for Release of British-Egyptian Activist and Coder Alaa Abd El Fattah

As British-Egyptian coder, blogger, and activist Alaa Abd El Fattah enters his fifth year in a maximum security prison outside Cairo, unjustly charged for supporting online free speech and privacy for Egyptians and people across the Middle East and North Africa, we stand with his family and an ever-growing international coalition of supporters in calling for his release.

Alaa has over these five years endured beatings and solitary confinement. His family at times were denied visits or any contact with him. He went on a seven-month hunger strike in protest of his incarceration, and his family feared that he might not make it.

But global attention on his plight, bolstered by support from British officials in recent years, ultimately led to improved prison conditions and family visitation rights.

But let’s be clear: Egypt’s long-running retaliation against Alaa for his activism is a travesty and an arbitrary use of its draconian, anti-speech laws. He has spent the better part of the last 10 years in prison. He has been investigated and imprisoned under every Egyptian regime that has served in his lifetime. The time is long overdue for him to be freed.

Over 20 years ago Alaa began using his technical skills to connect coders and technologists in the Middle East to build online communities where people could share opinions and speak freely and privately. The role he played in using technology to amplify the messages of his fellow Egyptians—as well as his own participation in the uprising in Tahrir Square—made him a prominent global voice during the Arab Spring, and a target for the country’s successive repressive regimes, which have used antiterrorism laws to silence critics by throwing them in jail and depriving them of due process and other basic human rights.

Alaa is a symbol for the principle of free speech in a region of the world where speaking out for justice and human rights is dangerous and using the power of technology to build community is criminalized. But he has also come to symbolize the oppression and cruelty with which the Egyptian government treats those who dare to speak out against authoritarianism and surveillance.

Egyptian authorities’ relentless, politically motivated pursuit of Alaa is an egregious display of abusive police power and lack of due process. He was first arrested and detained in 2006 for participating in a demonstration. He was arrested again in 2011 on charges related to another protest. In 2013 he was arrested and detained on charges of organizing a protest. He was eventually released in 2014, but imprisoned again after a judge found him guilty in absentia.

What diplomatic price has Egypt paid for denying the right of consular access to a British citizen? And will the Minister make clear there will be serious diplomatic consequences if access is not granted immediately and Alaa is not released and reunited with his family? – David Lammy

That same year he was released on bail, only to be re-arrested when he went to court to appeal his case. In 2015 he was sentenced to five years in prison and released in 2019. But he was re-arrested in a massive sweep of activists in Egypt while on probation and charged with spreading false news and belonging to a terrorist organization for sharing a Facebook post about human rights violations in prison. He was sentenced in 2021, after being held in pre-trial detention for more than two years, to five years in prison. September 29 will mark five years that he has spent behind bars.

While he’s been in prison an anthology of his writing, which was translated into English by anonymous supporters, was published in 2021 as You Have Not Yet Been Defeated, and he became a British citizen through his mother, the rights activist and mathematician Laila Soueif, that December.

Protesting his conditions, Alaa shaved his head and went on hunger strike beginning in April 2022. As he neared the third month of his hunger strike, former UK foreign secretary Liz Truss said she was working hard to secure his release. Similarly, then-PM Rishi Sunak wrote in a letter to Alaa’s sister, Sanaa Seif, that “the government is deeply committed to doing everything we can to resolve Alaa’s case as soon as possible.”

David Lammy, then a Member of Parliament and now Britain’s foreign secretary, asked Parliament in November 2022, “what diplomatic price has Egypt paid for denying the right of consular access to a British citizen? And will the Minister make clear there will be serious diplomatic consequences if access is not granted immediately and Alaa is not released and reunited with his family?” Lammy joined Alaa’s family during a sit-in outside of the Foreign Office.

When the UK government’s promises failed to come to fruition, Alaa escalated his hunger strike in the runup to the COP27 gathering. At the same time, a coordinated campaign led by his family and supported by a number of international organizations helped draw global attention to his plight, and ultimately led to improved prison conditions and family visitation rights.

But although Alaa’s conditions have improved and his family visitation rights have been secured, he remains wrongfully imprisoned, and his family fears that the Egyptian government has no intention of releasing him.

With Lammy, now UK Foreign Minister, and a new Labour government in place in the UK, there is renewed hope for Alaa’s release. Keir Starmer, Labour Leader and the new prime minister, has voiced his support for Fattah’s release.

The new government must make good on its pledge to defend British values and interests, and advocate for the release of its British citizen Alaa Fattah. We encourage British citizens to write to their MP (external link) and advocate for his release. His continued detention is debased. Egypt should face the sole of shoes around the world until Fattah is freed.