“I broke my strike. I will explain everything on Thursday,” he told them, referring to his monthly family visits to the prison in the Wadi el-Natrun desert where he is being held. The democracy activist was jailed for a further five years last year for sharing a post on social media about torture, shortly after gaining British citizenship through his mother. We have just received this letter. Alaa called off his hunger strike. I don’t know what’s going on inside, but our family visit is scheduled for Thursday and he says to bring a cake to celebrate his birthday. #FreeAlaa pic.twitter.com/tEk02T5hcW — Sanaa (@sana2) November 15, 2022 Abd el-Fattah, a figure in Egypt’s 2011 revolution who has spent most of the past decade behind bars, began a partial hunger strike in April to protest his detention conditions, spending more than six months eating just 100 calories the day. According to his family, his health has noticeably deteriorated. It escalated to a full hunger strike the week before Cop7, and then stopped drinking water the day the conference began in Sharm El Sheikh. He repeatedly told his family beforehand that he expected to die in prison. The news that Abd el-Fattah had broken his strike came after Egyptian public prosecutors said the activist had received “medical intervention” last week, without elaborating. In a letter to his family written last Saturday, Abd el-Fattah gave the first proof of life his family had received in two weeks, telling them he had started drinking water again. “Starting today I’m drinking water again so you can stop worrying until you see me yourself. Vitals today are fine. I’m taking measurements regularly and getting medical help,” he told them. Abd el-Fattah is set to celebrate his 41st birthday on Friday. “The important thing is that I want to celebrate my birthday with you on Thursday, I haven’t celebrated in a long time and I want to celebrate with my countrymen, so bring a cake, normal supplies,” he told his family in his last letter. . His communications are heavily monitored by prison authorities. Detainees in Egypt’s sprawling detention system, which houses at least 65,000 political prisoners, routinely require their families to provide them with food and other basic items to sustain them. “I’m cautiously relieved now knowing that at least he’s not on hunger strike, but my heart won’t really settle until Thursday when my mother and sister see him with their own eyes,” said Mona Seif, Abd el’s sister. -Fattah. His lawyer, Khaled Ali, has made three unsuccessful attempts to visit his client in prison, despite receiving permission to do so from Egypt’s public prosecutor. Ali’s visit was intended to provide updates on Abd el-Fattah’s well-being and condition, including what prompted him to start drinking water and start eating, and whether he had been subjected to treatments without his consent. “At this point the family has no further information about what happened inside the prison or what informs Alaa’s decision,” Abd el-Fattah’s family said in a statement. Another sister, Sanaa Seif, who attended Cop27 to campaign for her brother’s freedom and demand freedom for other political prisoners, is due to visit Wadi el-Natrun on Thursday. “We’re counting down the days until Thursday now to find out what’s going on inside the prison with Alaa,” he said.
