A letter signed by greater than 100 MPs and lords is to be submitted to Overseas Secretary James Cleverly calling for contemporary action to assist free pro-democracy activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah, who has been incarcerated in Egypt for many of the previous decade.
The mom of the 40-year-old British-Egyptian author, mathematician Laila Soueif, will lead a vigil held by Amnesty Worldwide UK because the letter is introduced to the Overseas and Commonwealth Growth Workplace (FCDO) on Monday.
Excessive profile politicians together with Sir Peter Bottomley, Sir Iain Duncan Smith and Lord Chris Patten are among the many signatories of the petition which calls for the UK to lead on a joint assertion on the UN Human Rights Council and to replace the FCDO’s journey recommendation for British guests to Egypt.
Mr Abd El-Fattah is at present serving a five-year sentence on costs of disseminating false information for retweeting a report in 2019 that one other prisoner had died in custody.
He has been finishing up starvation strikes whereas in custody which he intensified on the time of the Cop27 summit in Sharm el-Sheik in November 2022, throughout which Prime Minister Rishi Sunak raised his case with President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.
Within the letter to Mr Cleverly, the supporters of the Free Alaa marketing campaign state: “We’re writing to specific our concern on the lack of progress on the case of Alaa Abd el-Fattah, six months on from the Prime Minister’s assembly with President Sisi in Sharm el-Sheikh.
“Consequently, we’re asking you to take the lead on a joint assertion on Egypt on the UN Human Rights Council, and to replace the UK’s journey recommendation for the nation.
“You might be after all conscious that whereas the 2 leaders have been assembly, Alaa was perilously shut to dying, collapsing simply days later.
“Since he selected to finish his starvation and water strike, he has remained imprisoned in his cell and has nonetheless not obtained a single go to from a consular official, regardless of repeated commitments to Alaa’s household from British ministers and officers that they’re doing all the things they will.
“Non-public lobbying of the Egyptian authorities, even on the highest ranges, is but to ship outcomes.
“This calls for contemporary approaches that draw on conventional British strengths of worldwide diplomacy. The Human Rights Council presents a key alternative for the UK to lead on a joint assertion.”
The letter additionally calls on the UK journey recommendation to comply with that given by the US which warns that overseas nationals should not protected against “extended interrogations and prolonged detention” and its embassy shouldn’t be all the time stored knowledgeable of their circumstances.
The protest on Monday has been timed to mark the tenth anniversary of President El-Sisi’s army coup in Egypt throughout which period Mr Abd El-Fattah has been imprisoned for all however a couple of months.
His supporters additionally spotlight that it has been 18 months for the reason that British embassy in Cairo has been given entry to him in jail.
