Family of Prominent Egyptian Political Prisoner Says It Has Proof He Is Alive

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/14/world/africa/alaa-abd-el-fattah-egypt-alive.html

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CAIRO — After more than a week of silence, uncertainty and escalating controversy, the family of Egypt’s best-known political prisoner said it had received word from him on Monday that he was alive after about seven months on hunger strike and several days of refusing water.

Alaa Abd El Fattah, a dissident who has been jailed for most of the past nine years for his outspoken criticism of Egypt’s government, stopped drinking water on Nov. 6 — the day the United Nations climate summit began in Egypt — as a means of pressuring the authorities to release him. Since then, his family said it had not received proof he was alive.

That was until Monday, when his mother came to the prison where he is being held and was given a note in what his family said was his handwriting.

“I am sure you are worried about me,” he wrote in a brief letter dated Nov. 12, according to Ahdaf Soueif, his aunt, who posted its contents on Twitter. “Today (Saturday), I began drinking water, my vitals are good, and I am receiving medical care. I miss you a lot and I love you a lot.”

He did not explain why he had begun drinking water again or what kind of medical care he was receiving. His family members had said last week that they had been told he was undergoing a “medical intervention,” which they feared meant he was being force fed to keep him from dying during the climate conference.

“I’m so relieved,” one of his sisters, Sanaa Seif, wrote on Twitter on Monday after her mother, Laila Soueif, had received the letter from prison. “Proof of life, at last.”

Khaled Ali, Mr. Abd El Fattah’s lawyer, said he had twice tried to visit over the past week after being granted a visitation permit by the Egyptian authorities, only to be turned away at the prison.

Mr. Abd El Fattah’s death would be a major blight on an event that Egypt had hoped would bring only positive attention to the country. All of last week, as world leaders, climate negotiators, activists and other delegates packed the Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheikh for the conference, Mr. Abd El Fattah’s case cast a shadow over the proceedings, his name on many new lips.

His note was written a day after White House officials said President Biden raised Mr. Abd El Fattah’s case with President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt in a meeting on the sidelines of the climate summit, where Mr. Biden had delivered a speech on his climate agenda.

Hours after the Egyptian and American presidents met, Mr. Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, told reporters aboard Air Force One that the administration was “doing everything we can” to secure Mr. Abd El Fattah’s release and that of other Egyptian political prisoners. But he said the American delegation had not received any proof that he was alive.

The leaders of Britain, France and Germany all pressed the Egyptian president to release him as well. Climate demonstrators held banners reading, “We have not yet been defeated,” a reference to a collection of Mr. Abd El Fattah’s writings in and out of prison, “You Have Not Yet Been Defeated,” which was published last year.

A flurry of stories about him appeared in the international news media. But Egypt did not budge.

Instead, government supporters lashed out at the international pressure, using social media and government media outlets. They argued that he had been convicted of a crime in a legitimate legal process and deserved no special treatment.

When Ms. Seif, Mr. Abd El Fattah’s sister, spoke publicly about his case at the conference, she was noisily interrupted by an Egyptian lawmaker and later filmed at another event by Egyptian security officials. Only the fact that the conference was sponsored and secured by the United Nations kept more pushback at bay.

United Nations security officers ejected the lawmaker from Ms. Seif’s news conference and guarded a protest where Ms. Seif appeared, though other Egyptian security personnel in plain clothes were seen filming there as well.

With confirmation that Mr. Abd El Fattah was alive, however, came more uncertainty. There were few signs that Egypt planned to release him, and as the climate conference nears its end later this week, it was unclear whether he and his family could continue leveraging Egypt’s moment under strong international scrutiny.