Jailed activist's mother in hospital after resuming hunger strike
The mother of a British-Egyptian activist imprisoned in Cairo has been admitted to hospital for the second time, a week after resuming a full hunger strike to campaign for his release, her family says.
Laila Soueif, 69, the mother of Alaa Abdel Fattah, was taken to Guy's and St Thomas' hospital in London on Thursday with dangerously low blood sugar and blood pressure. She is refusing glucose treatment.
She began consuming only tea, coffee and rehydration salts in September.
She moved to a partial strike in February, consuming 300 calories a day, after she was admitted to hospital for the first time and the British prime minister said he had "pressed" Egypt's president to free her son.
Despite having lost more than 40% of her original body weight, Ms Soueif announced on 20 May that she had decided to return to a zero-calorie diet because "nothing has changed, nothing is happening".
Two days later, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said he had again pressed Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi for the urgent release of her son, and "underlined how important it is to him to bring an end to the anguish Alaa and his family have faced".
Illegal imprisonment
Alaa Abdel Fattah is also on his 91st day of his own hunger strike - consuming nothing but herbal tea, black coffee and rehydration salts, like his mother, at Wadi al-Natrun prison in Egypt, according to the family.
The 43-year-old blogger and pro-democracy activist is one of Egypt's best known political prisoners.
He was arrested in September 2019, six months after finishing a previous five-year sentence.
He was convicted in 2021 of "spreading false news", for sharing a Facebook post about torture in Egypt.
He should have been released on 29 September 2024 - the day Mrs Soueif started her hunger strike. However, the Egyptian authorities refused to count the more than two years he spent in pre-trial detention towards his time served.
Although he acquired British citizenship in 2021, Egypt has never allowed him a consular visit by British diplomats.
Her daughter, Mona Seif, wrote on X: "No-one here comprehends the numbers, that she is still conscious and adamantly refusing medical intervention."
On Wednesday, a UN panel of independent human rights experts said in a legal opinion that Alaa Abdel Fattah's detention was arbitrary and illegal under international law, and called for his immediate release, his lawyer said.
Laila Soueif, 69, the mother of Alaa Abdel Fattah, was taken to Guy's and St Thomas' hospital in London on Thursday with dangerously low blood sugar and blood pressure. She is refusing glucose treatment.
She began consuming only tea, coffee and rehydration salts in September.
She moved to a partial strike in February, consuming 300 calories a day, after she was admitted to hospital for the first time and the British prime minister said he had "pressed" Egypt's president to free her son.
Despite having lost more than 40% of her original body weight, Ms Soueif announced on 20 May that she had decided to return to a zero-calorie diet because "nothing has changed, nothing is happening".
Two days later, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said he had again pressed Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi for the urgent release of her son, and "underlined how important it is to him to bring an end to the anguish Alaa and his family have faced".
Illegal imprisonment
Alaa Abdel Fattah is also on his 91st day of his own hunger strike - consuming nothing but herbal tea, black coffee and rehydration salts, like his mother, at Wadi al-Natrun prison in Egypt, according to the family.
The 43-year-old blogger and pro-democracy activist is one of Egypt's best known political prisoners.
He was arrested in September 2019, six months after finishing a previous five-year sentence.
He was convicted in 2021 of "spreading false news", for sharing a Facebook post about torture in Egypt.
He should have been released on 29 September 2024 - the day Mrs Soueif started her hunger strike. However, the Egyptian authorities refused to count the more than two years he spent in pre-trial detention towards his time served.
Although he acquired British citizenship in 2021, Egypt has never allowed him a consular visit by British diplomats.
Her daughter, Mona Seif, wrote on X: "No-one here comprehends the numbers, that she is still conscious and adamantly refusing medical intervention."
On Wednesday, a UN panel of independent human rights experts said in a legal opinion that Alaa Abdel Fattah's detention was arbitrary and illegal under international law, and called for his immediate release, his lawyer said.
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