Sanaa Seif, sister of the political prisoner in Egypt Alaa Abdelfatá, in a demonstration held this Saturday at the climate summit, in the Egyptian city of Sharm el Sheikh. JOSEPH EID (AFP)
The critical intellectual and symbol of the Egyptian opposition Alaa Abdelfatá has been in prison for three years after an express trial in which he was convicted of spreading "false information" on social networks.
Her sister Sanaa Seif did not need to say a word at last weekend's demonstration at the climate summit in Sharm el Sheikh to show her concern.
Sorrowful, nervous, sometimes staring at the sky and sometimes at the ground, Seif led the silent protest among activists demanding climate justice and compensation for climate damages.
She didn't say anything, but she stood by all of them and put her hand to her chest every time the freedom of human rights defenders was called for.
"We know that [the Egyptian government] would be happy about her death, but they don't want it to happen when the world is watching,
but the world is watching”, the sister of the most famous political prisoner in Egypt had previously commented during a massive conference offered last week at the COP.
Seif and dozens of organizations united at the summit have contributed to placing Abdelfatá's case at the center of global political and activist attention.
If on Monday it was learned that the political prisoner had abandoned his thirst strike, this Tuesday the family announced that they had also left the hunger strike that began in April.
The reasons for the decision are not yet known, but pressure in recent days had led British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and the Presidents of France, Emmanuel Macron, and the United States, to Joe Biden, asked the Egyptian authorities for their release in bilateral summit meetings.
The UN commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, also asked Cairo on Tuesday for the release of the Egyptian intellectual, alleging that his life is at "serious risk".
Coming to the fore, the Egyptian mission at the UN, established in Geneva, forcefully rejected Türk's request.
In a statement in which they do the necessary juggling to avoid naming Abdelfatá by name, the mission accused the commissioner of “deliberately undermining” the independence of the judiciary and called it an “unacceptable insult” that he considered the sentence unfair.
Various Egyptian political and media figures have also attacked Abdelfatá and his family ever since.
The country's Prosecutor's Office issued a statement on Thursday in which it denied the major and questioned that the prisoner was on a hunger strike.
Various Egyptian political and media figures have also attacked Abdelfatá and his family since then.
The country's Prosecutor's Office issued a statement on Thursday in which it denied the major and questioned that the prisoner was on a hunger strike.
Various Egyptian political and media figures have also attacked Abdelfatá and his family since then.
The country's Prosecutor's Office issued a statement on Thursday in which it denied the major and questioned that the prisoner was on a hunger strike.
The 40-year-old Cairot, a computer engineer and writer, is one of the icons of the 2011 revolution in Egypt and one of the most prestigious intellectuals in the Arab world.
His political activity and influence, however, have cost him spending around three quarters of the last decade behind bars and imprisonment under the mandate of all the country's leaders.
His last prison journey dates back to the end of 2019, just six months after he set foot on the asphalt again after four years in prison.
While serving a strict probation regime, Abdelfatá was arrested again and held in pretrial detention until, in December 2021, he was sentenced to five years in prison after an express trial "for publishing false information."
So, he has been locked up for three years.
Since then,
The treatment in prison worsened alarmingly, according to what his family has denounced.
And given the harsh conditions to which he has been subjected, Abdelfatá decided to start a hunger strike on April 2.
Moved by the lack of progress, and as a last resort, he informed his family that on November 1 he would escalate to a full hunger strike.
And on day 6, coinciding with the start of COP27, he also stopped drinking water.
The Egyptian-British intellectual Alaa Abdelfatá, in an undated image. OMAR ROBERT HAMILTON (via REUTERS)
His mother, the teacher Leila Soueif, has repeatedly traveled since last Sunday to the prison where Abdelfatá is located, 100 kilometers from Cairo, and has waited long hours to receive a letter from her son or some proof that he is still live.
It was not until yesterday Monday that they finally delivered a letter written by Abdelfatá on Saturday, and spread on social networks, in which he informed him that that same day he had drunk water again after six days without doing so, and that his vital signs were right.
Today the family has received another letter in which the prisoner tells that he has also left the hunger strike.
Recently, prison authorities also informed the family that the prisoner had undergone medical intervention, according to Sister Mona Seif, but no details have been released.
And although his lawyer, Khaled Ali, has since received two permits from the Prosecutor's Office to visit him, once in prison he has been prevented from entering.
Last Friday, Mona Seif also made public that she had presented a personal plea addressed to the Egyptian president, Abdelfatá Al Sisi, in which she expresses the need for her brother to be released.
In June, she had already submitted a request for a presidential pardon herself, as part of her strategy to exhaust all legal avenues available to her to resolve the case.
“He is not in prison for posting on Facebook, he is in prison for making people believe that a better world is possible,” Seif said in his COP talk, which was interrupted by Egyptian MP Amr Darwish who had to be evicted. from the room by the security agents.
Since then he has received two permits from the Prosecutor's Office to visit him, once in prison he has been prevented from entering.
Last Friday, Mona Seif also made public that she had presented a personal plea addressed to the Egyptian president, Abdelfatá Al Sisi, in which she expresses the need for her brother to be released.
In June, she had already submitted a request for a presidential pardon herself, as part of her strategy to exhaust all legal avenues available to her to resolve the case.
“He is not in prison for posting on Facebook, he is in prison for making people believe that a better world is possible,” Seif said in his COP talk, which was interrupted by Egyptian MP Amr Darwish who had to be evicted. from the room by the security agents.
Since then he has received two permits from the Prosecutor's Office to visit him, once in prison he has been prevented from entering.
Last Friday, Mona Seif also made public that she had presented a personal plea addressed to the Egyptian president, Abdelfatá Al Sisi, in which she expresses the need for her brother to be released.
In June, she had already submitted a request for a presidential pardon herself, as part of her strategy to exhaust all legal avenues available to her to resolve the case.
“He is not in prison for posting on Facebook, he is in prison for making people believe that a better world is possible,” Seif said in his COP talk, which was interrupted by Egyptian MP Amr Darwish who had to be evicted. from the room by the security agents.
With the start of COP27 and his escalation in the hunger strike, Abdelfatá, who obtained British nationality a few months ago thanks to his mother, has become in the eyes of many a symbol of the urgency of connecting the fight for justice climate with that of political freedoms and respect for human rights.
The Egyptian intellectual himself had addressed with concern in some of his writings the environmental crisis facing humanity and its links to issues of social and transnational justice.
He is among the political prisoners singled out by a coalition of 12 Egyptian human rights organizations created
ad hoc
for the summit precisely with the aim of harnessing the power of the global climate movement for this cause.
A petition launched by this coalition in October has collected 1,400 signatures from 86 countries, including the Climate Action Network (CAN), which unites more than 1,800 civil society organizations from around the world, and renowned activists such as Greta Thunberg. and Naomi Klein.
In recent days, different social mobilizations have also been held to express solidarity with Abdelfatá, from marches and rallies to candle lighting, in cities such as Ramallah, Beirut, Tunis, Brussels, Rome, The Hague, New York and Toronto.
Another one was held at the COP site on Thursday in which dozens of activists of many different nationalities gathered to denounce the violations of the rights of defenders of climate justice in the world.
Dressed in white, like the attire of the prisoners in Egypt, and under the motto “There is no climate justice without human rights.
We have not been defeated”, they launched their proclamations without mentioning the name of the Arab intellectual.
But the slogan hid the wink of carrying the title of his book published in 2021:
You have not been defeated yet.
"Free him, free him, free everyone!" exclaimed one of the participants in the protest, who had permission from the organization.
Protesters dressed in white, in honor of Egyptian prisoners, at a protest on Thursday 10 at COP27, in Sharm el Sheikh. Ángeles Lucas
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