Egyptian-UK activist Alaa Abdel Fattah gets sick on hunger strike in prison

Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abdel Fattah has become sick after spending more than 50 days on a hunger strike in prison, his family said on Tuesday.

The political activist has spent more than a decade behind bars in Egypt.

He said he had suffered repeated bouts of vomiting over the past week, in a letter to his family on Saturday.

Abdel Fattah went on hunger strike on March 1, after learning that his mother, Laila Soueif, had been hospitalised on her own hunger strike in London, where she had been advocating for his release. 

Soueif, 68, has not eaten solid food since September 2024. She was hospitalised in London in February with life-threateningly low blood sugar levels. She has since agreed to be put on a glucose drip.

Abdel Fattah has survived on herbal tea, black coffee and rehydration salts only since the beginning of his hunger strike. In jail, he is receiving treatment for suspected damage to his stomach and intestines.  

He wrote to his family that the inflammation in his stomach was “getting worse", and that the medications were making him "dizzy" and impairing his vision. 

“We are all so exhausted. My mum and my brother are literally putting their bodies on the line, just to give Alaa the freedom he deserves”, Abdel Fattah’s sister Sanaa Seif said in a statement.

“Their health is so precarious, I’m always afraid that we are on the verge of a tragedy. We need Keir Starmer to do all he can to bring Alaa home to us.”

Alaa Abdel Fattah has gone on hunger strike several times in the past, most notably in 2022 during the COP27 summit held in Egypt.

The activist rose to prominence during the 2011 Arab Spring, when he campaigned for democracy in Egypt. He has been imprisoned almost continuously since 2014.

He was supposed to be released last year, but Egyptian authorities postponed his discharge until 2027, by excluding his pre-trial detention from his 5-year sentence for charges including "spreading false news." 

Many human rights organisations have called for his release. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer urged Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi to free the activist during a meeting in February.