UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer pressed President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi for the “urgent release” of Alaa Abdel Fattah during a phone call Thursday, the British Prime Minister’s Office said in an official readout.
“The Prime Minister pressed for the urgent release of British national Alaa Abd El-Fattah so that he can be reunited with his family,” the statement from 10 Downing Street read. “He underlined how important it is to him to bring an end to the anguish Alaa and his family have faced.”
Egypt’s presidential readout of the call did not mention Abdel Fattah, focusing instead on bilateral relations and the war in Gaza. It is the second time the presidency has omitted any reference to Starmer raising Abdel Fattah’s case, despite public and private British assurances.
In a February letter to Laila Soueif, Starmer wrote that he personally raised Alaa's case with President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in the first phone call he had with him, which underlines his commitment to securing Alaa's release. Yet neither the Egyptian presidency nor 10 Downing Street acknowledged this in their respective statements at the time. This week’s official readout from Downing Street marks the first time the UK government has publicly confirmed that Starmer raised Abdel Fattah’s case with El-Sisi, aligning the official record with the prime minister’s earlier private claim.
Earlier this week, a cross-party group of 100 MPs and peers sent a letter to Prime Minister Starmer urging him to “deploy every tool” available to secure Abdel Fattah’s release. The letter described the case as being at a “vital stage,” warning that a resolution is necessary to protect Abdel Fattah’s life as well as that of his mother, Laila Soueif. “We write with mounting concern about the lack of concrete progress on Alaa’s case, more than two months after your call with President Sisi.”
The British lawmakers called Abdel Fattah a “political prisoner” who should have been released after serving his five-year sentence. They noted he has been “acutely unwell” in detention, suffering from vomiting, stomach pain, dizziness, and blurred vision.
The letter also highlighted that Soueif resumed a full hunger strike this week after months on a limited liquid diet. According to the Free Alaa campaign, she has now been on hunger strike for 234 days and weighs just 49 kilograms, having lost 42% of her original body weight. “Time is in desperately short supply in this case,” they added.
Abdel Fattah, a prominent writer, blogger, and digital rights advocate, has been on hunger strike for over 80 days inside Wadi El-Natrun prison, protesting the state’s refusal to release him despite completing his five-year sentence in September 2024.
Egyptian authorities argue his sentence only began in January 2022, when it was ratified by a military official, and refuse to count the 28 months he spent in pretrial detention. Legal experts and rights lawyers say this defies Egypt’s Criminal Procedure Code, specifically Articles 482 and 484, which mandate subtracting pretrial time from total sentences.
His mother, academic Laila Soueif, resumed a full hunger strike Wednesday after months of partial fasting. “I am fighting with my body because the law is ignored,” she said in a video statement circulated by rights groups. Soueif has also launched daily one-hour sit-ins outside the British Prime Minister’s residence at 10 Downing Street.
Abdel Fattah resumed his own strike in March upon learning of her hospitalization.
Two petitions filed by his legal team this month call for his release on the basis of time served. In addition, his sister, Sanaa Seif, and Constitution Party leader Gameela Ismail submitted a renewed presidential pardon request at the Ittihadiya Palace.
Abdel Fattah obtained UK citizenship in 2021 through his mother, who was born in London in 1956 during her mother’s academic posting.
