Laila Soueif , the Egyptian mathematician and mother of jailed political activist Alaa Abd Elfattah, confirmed that her son is still on hunger strike but appears to be in slightly better physical condition than during previous visits.
Laila returned to Cairo on Saturday evening from London, where she had been staying for months while on a hunger strike. On Sunday, she visited her son at Wadi Al-Natrun Prison in the first in-person meeting they had had in four months.
The visit was through the glass barrier with no direct contact, Laila told Al Manassa. “The visit time was as usual, no more than half an hour,” she said, "I wasn’t allowed to hug him, even though our last visit was in January. Still, the meeting lifted his spirits. And mine, of course.”
Laila traveled to London in January after an extraordinary prison visit to see Alaa on Christmas. Such visits are occasionally granted in Egypt on public holidays outside the regular visitation schedule.
“Despite the glass and the short time, the visit was not harsh overall. We were treated decently,” she said.
Alaa, one of Egypt’s most high-profile detainees, began his hunger strike in March after learning of the deteriorating health of his mother. She had been admitted to St. Thomas’ Hospital in London on February 25 after 155 days on a full hunger strike. After health complications in March, she turned into a partial strike of 300 calories a day.
Alaa remains in legal limbo due to the state’s refusal to credit more than two years of pretrial detention toward his prison sentence. Although arrested in September 2019, authorities count his term from January 2022, leaving him imprisoned despite having served his time, according to his lawyer Khaled Ali.
In recent months, pressure has grown to secure Abdel Fattah’s release. On December 4, Alaa's sisters, Mona and Sanaa Seif, submitted a request for a presidential pardon through an intermediary. Mona told Al Manassa at the time that they had submitted similar requests earlier through the Presidential Pardon Committee and the National Council for Human Rights but received no response.
Last week, on Laila's 69th birthday, her daughter Mona expressed concern that it may be the last birthday they spent together. “An entire state has chosen to participate in a public murder, implicating all who follow its orders,” she said.
In recent months, women’s rights advocates and civil society groups have launched multiple campaigns to demand Alaa's release. In one effort, 665 Egyptian women signed a petition delivered to First Lady Entissar El Sisi urging clemency. Another initiative saw 100 journalists issued a public statement praising Soueif as a renowned scholar and demanding swift action.
The Civil Democratic Movement, a coalition of opposition parties and public figures, also submitted a formal appeal for Alaa's release, citing his mother’s deteriorating condition as a humanitarian crisis.
Alaa was granted British citizenship in 2021 through his mother, Laila Soueif, who was born in the United Kingdom. She is now residing in England.
