The Egyptian government, under President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, continues to deny citizens their rights to peaceful assembly, association and expression. Scores of journalists, human rights activists and bloggers have been arrested, detained for prolonged periods without trial and charged for making remarks critical of the government. Egypt’s anti-terrorism legislation, the Anti-Protest Law and the Anti-Cybercrime Law are regularly used to restrict free expression. The authorities also resort to smear campaigns, threats, physical assaults and travel bans in their attempts to silence dissenting voices. In some cases, individuals have been persecuted merely because they are perceived to hold dissenting views.

The year opened with a fresh round of repression. In January, a criminal investigation was opened into the actions of renowned human rights defender Hossam Bahgat. Nada Mogheeth, wife of detained cartoonist Ashraf Omar, was arrested in connection with an interview she gave the journalist Ahmed Serag, who was also detained. The TikToker Mohamed Allam was arrested over viral videos critical of President Sisi. Meanwhile, the award-winning British-Egyptian writer and activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah (LR, Feb 2018, July 2022, Sept 2023) remains in prison, despite completing his latest unjust sentence on 29 September 2024. The Egyptian authorities have refused to count the two years he spent in pretrial detention as part of his jail term.

Known worldwide for his writings and activism, Abd el-Fattah has spent more than two thirds of the last decade in prison because of his advocacy for human rights and free expression. In March 2019, he was released from prison after serving a sentence for violating Egypt’s protest laws. He was arrested again in September of the same year and charged with ‘spreading false news’ and ‘misusing social media’. In December 2021, he received a five-year prison sentence after a grossly unfair trial before the Egyptian Emergency State Security Court, whose verdicts cannot be appealed. During his latest period of detention, Abd el-Fattah has endured torture and been denied medical care and access to his family. He has also been subjected to prolonged solitary confinement and repeatedly deprived of necessities, including a mattress, clean clothing, books and newspapers. His requests for essential medical devices, including a glucose monitor, have been denied, increasing his risk of ill health. To date, the Egyptian authorities have failed adequately to investigate Abd el-Fattah’s allegations of torture and ill-treatment.

Abd el-Fattah gained UK citizenship in 2022 through his mother, Laila Soueif, a London-born academic. However, the Egyptian authorities have obstructed his access to UK consular services. Successive UK governments have failed to secure his release, even though Britain has strong diplomatic and economic relations with Egypt. This February, Abd el-Fattah’s 68-year-old mother was admitted to a London hospital after spending more than 150 days on hunger strike in protest at his ongoing detention. Abd el-Fattah began his own hunger strike on 1 March. 

Abd el-Fattah was named ‘Writer of Courage’ at the 2024 PEN Pinter Prize ceremony. His book You Have Not Yet Been Defeated, an anthology of his work translated by a collective and published in the UK by Fitzcarraldo Editions in October 2021, has received widespread acclaim. It includes a note, written in prison in November 2020, in which Abd el-Fattah describes his mindset: ‘I try to energize my head, in the absence of books, by remembering stories from history, sometimes by chattering on about science. My imagination can’t really engage with post-release dreams … Of course, I’m used to Gramsci’s method regarding the pessimism of the mind and the optimism of the will. But there’s such negation of the will here that I need to train myself into an optimism of the mind, before I mess up my colleagues.’ 

Readers might like to send appeals to the Egyptian authorities protesting against the continued imprisonment of Alaa Abd el-Fattah following the completion of his prison sentence in September and calling for his immediate and unconditional release in accordance with Egypt’s obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. 

Appeals to be addressed to:

Abdel Fattah el-Sisi
President of Egypt
Al Ittihadiya Palace, Cairo, Egypt
Email: presidency@op.gov.eg

His Excellency Ambassador Nasser Kamel
Embassy of the Arab Republic of Egypt
26 South Street
London W1K 1DW
Fax: +44 20 7491 1542
Email: eg.emb_london@mfa.gov.eg

Raise awareness about Abd el-Fattah’s case on social media with the hashtag #FreeAlaa.