Jailed Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah has escalated his five-month hunger strike, a family member told Reuters, eliminating his meagre intake of solids as part of his campaign to protest his detention.
A leading voice in the 2011 uprising that ended President Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule, some rights groups say his case shows Western countries including Britain and the United States put national interests ahead of promoting freedom.
Egypt’s most high-profile dissident was previously consuming one piece of fibre per week, an apple or a cucumber, as well as just 100 calories of liquid per day, to stay alive, his sister Sanaa Seif told Reuters after visiting him on Tuesday.
“During the visit he was leaning on the glass partition, he was struggling but is trying to keep it together,” she said.
In June, his mother Laila Soueif expressed concerns her son’s health could deteriorate rapidly.
Abd el-Fattah began his hunger strike on April 2 to protest his detention and prison conditions. He was jailed in December for five years on charges of spreading fake news, for sharing a social media post about the death of a prisoner. He acknowledges retweeting the post but maintains his sentence is unjust.
Egyptian officials have not responded to Reuters’ phone calls for comment on Abd el-Fattah’s case, but have said he was receiving meals and was moved to a prison with better conditions earlier this year.
The Egyptian government has defended judicial decisions against foreign criticism, including over Abd el-Fattah’s conviction.
Neither Abd el-Fattah or his family expect Egypt, a close ally of the United States, Britain and other Western states, to release him anytime soon, his sister said.
“We know for a fact that Alaa has become a well-known case to other governments so it’s extremely frustrating that we did our part but we aren’t achieving results, and that means that these governments are not doing their part,” said Seif.
