CAIRO — Egyptian activist
Alaa Abdel Fattah, a key figure in the country’s 2011 revolution, has obtained
British citizenship from inside prison, his family said Monday.
اضافة اعلان
The family has appealed to British authorities to seek consular
access to visit him in jail.
Abdel Fattah, along with his sisters Mona and Sanaa, gained
UK citizenship through their mother, math professor Laila Soueif, who was born in
London in 1965.
As a British citizen, Abdel Fattah also requests he be allowed to
communicate with the family’s lawyers in the UK “so that they can take all
possible legal measures regarding not only the violations he has been subjected
to, but all the crimes against humanity he has witnessed during his
imprisonment,” according to a statement released by Abdel Fattah’s sisters.
The news comes 10 days into a hunger strike which Abdel Fattah
began on April 2, the first day of
Ramadan, in protest at his prison
conditions, according to his sister Mona Seif.
“For two and a half years, he has been kept in a cell without
sunlight, with no books, no exercise. His visitations have been cut to one
family member, for 20 minutes a month, through glass, with not a moment of
privacy or contact,” the statement said.
Egypt has released several political prisoners who hold a second
nationality in recent years.
Abdel Fattah was sentenced in December to five years in prison
after he was convicted along with two others of “broadcasting false news”.
He had already been in pre-trial detention in
Cairo’s Tora prison
since September 2019.
Abdel Fattah has spent much of the past decade behind bars, having
also been arrested under former presidents
Hosni Mubarak, who was toppled in
the revolution, and Mohammed Morsi.
Rights
groups say Egypt is holding a total of some 60,000 political prisoners, many
facing brutal conditions and overcrowded cells.
Read more Region and World
Jordan News
.jpg)
.jpg)
