Members of the UK Parliament’s cross-party group on arbitrary detention called on their government on Wednesday to impose sanctions on Egypt to secure the release of imprisoned political activist Alaa Abdel Fattah.
Speaking at a press conference outside St Thomas’ Hospital in London—where Alaa's mother, academic Laila Soueif lies in a critical condition due to her hunger strike over her son's continued detention—independent MP John McDonnell emphasized that the UK government’s current strategy of positive incentives had failed to secure Alaa Abdel Fattah’s release.
“We’ve tried the carrot, now it’s time to try the stick,” he said, urging the government to escalate its approach to Egypt, including issuing travel advisories against visiting the country.
McDonnell also called on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to take immediate and effective action to secure Abdel Fattah’s release.
In May, McDonnell was among 102 British MPs who signed a letter to the prime minister, urging him to intervene to free Abdel Fattah and save the life of his mother, academic Laila Soueif.
Alaa was sentenced to five years by Egypt’s Emergency State Security Court in December 2021 on charges of spreading “false news.” Despite completing his sentence last September, authorities continue to detain him.
Although arrested in September 2019, authorities are counting his term from January 2022, leaving him imprisoned despite having served his time, according to his lawyer Khaled Ali.
Laila began a full hunger strike the day after Alaa's prison term expired. Following promises of a resolution after several appeals and requests for his release, she shifted to a partial hunger strike in March, consuming just 300 calories a day.
She recently resumed her full hunger strike after the government failed to meet her demands, leading to a serious decline in her health and her admission to hospital.
Also speaking at the press conference, MP Brendan O’Hara of the Scottish National Party said that the MPs have “raised the case of Alaa at every opportunity in the House of Commons. For months, we've had the same answer, that the government is doing all that it can, that the government is putting as much pressure as it can on the Egyptians to release Alaa.”
“That's patently not true,” he added, “the government has leverage which it is not using. It's quite clear that it's not using that leverage.”
O’Hara added that the UK government could do more to apply pressure on President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, describing Alaa’s continued detention as “the illegal detention of a British citizen.”
Liberal democrat MP Olly Glover also asserted that polite requests have proven ineffective, with authorities consistently rejecting them. He called on the UK government to “use its leverage.”
“It can impose sanctions, it can introduce travel advice, it can suspend trade talks. There are a lot of arrows in that quiver that the UK government has, but up until now it has absolutely refused to use any of them.” he said.
Recently, Baroness Helena Kennedy, a member of the House of Lords, urged the UK to escalate its stance toward Egypt and consider international legal action against Cairo for refusing to release, who holds British citizenship.
In an opinion piece published by The Guardian, Kennedy called on the UK to “ramp up the pressure on Egypt to release Abdel Fattah,” noting that “Keir Starmer has rightly raised his case with the Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah El-Sisi, but we know this Egyptian government will not respond to words alone: the last three prime ministers also tried discussing the case without success.”
Alaa obtained British citizenship in 2021 through his mother, who was born in London in 1956 while her mother was on an academic assignment.
In March, the UK’s cross-party group on arbitrary detention, through which Kennedy works, held hearings on three high-profile cases of British nationals held abroad: Jimmy Lai in Hong Kong, Ryan Cornelius in the UAE, and Alaa Abdel Fattah in Egypt.
The hearings highlighted deficiencies in the UK’s sanctions strategy concerning human rights violations, particularly the detention of British citizens overseas. “The arbitrary detention alone should be sufficient to designate sanctions,” the group said.
The committee later issued written recommendations mentioning Alaa’s case, stating that the UK has “still not taken any action, including sanctions, against any Egyptian authorities responsible for Abdel Fattah’s continued detention, even after he has completed his 5-year sentence.”
However, the committee clarified that its written evidence “is not an official publication of the House of Commons or the House of Lords. It has not been approved by either House or its committees.”
On Wednesday, The Guardian reported that El-Sisi refused to take a call from Starmer, knowing it would be an appeal to save the life of Alaa's mother.
According to the diplomatic editor, Starmer has been trying to speak with El-Sisi ever since Laila was hospitalized. However, after receiving two calls at the start of the crisis, the Egyptian president has so far refused a third. Starmer’s last call to El-Sisi was on May 22, when he urged him to “end the family’s suffering.”
Although the Egyptian presidency’s statement after the call did not mention Alaa, the British government's statement said that Prime Minister Starmer had “pressed for the urgent release of British national Alaa Abdel Fattah so that he can be reunited with his family,” and underlined “how important it is to him to bring an end to the anguish Alaa and his family have faced.”
A diplomat cited anonymously by The Guardian said El-Sisi is adamant that he does not regard Alaa as anything to do with Britain, since he won’t recognize his dual citizenship.
UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy has asked for options to express the UK’s anger over the case, but according to The Guardian, any of these options is unlikely to force El-Sisi to back down.
In a statement issued late Tuesday, Amnesty International warned that Alaa's 69-year-old mother, academic Laila Soueif, is “feared to be near death after a long hunger strike.”
Meanwhile, 41 Tunisian human rights organizations called on the Egyptian authorities to release Alaa, arguing that his continued detention “despite international calls for his release, including the UN, reflects restrictions on freedom of expression and civil society space in Egypt.”
On Tuesday, a group of Egyptian feminist organizations and activists issued a statement urging President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi to “act urgently and respond to Soueif’s legitimate demands. Dr. Soueif’s life is at risk, and our silence means leaving her to face death alone.”
Additionally, a number of students at Mansoura University submitted a letter to the university president asking him to contact the relevant authorities to help save Laila's life and secure Alaa’s release.
