Nobel laureates urge Egypt release political detainees

• Nobel Literature laureates urge international leaders to persuade Egypt to release thousands of political prisoners.
• The 15 laureates wrote to the UN, European Council, and chiefs of state in France, the UK, the US, and France.
• COP27 will bring governments together to speed up climate change mitigation.
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More than a dozen Nobel Literature laureates have urged international leaders to persuade Egypt, host of the COP27 International Climate Conference, to release “thousands” of political prisoners, including notable Egyptian-British campaigner Alaa Abd el-Fattah.

The 15 Nobel laureates wrote to the UN, European Council, and chiefs of state in France, the UK, the US, and France to “take every opportunity” during the meeting “to bring the voices of the unjustly imprisoned into the room”.

From November 6 to 18, the UN-organized COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, will bring governments together to speed up climate change mitigation.

“We urge you to use the opportunity that is now in your hands to help those most vulnerable, not just to the rising seas, but those imprisoned and forgotten – specifically in the very country that has the privilege of hosting you,” the laureates, who include Turkish author Orhan Pamuk, American poet Louise Gluck, Tanzanian novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah, and British author Kazuo Ishiguro, said.

“We implore you to use your plenary address to speak the names of the imprisoned, demand for their freedom, and invite Egypt to turn a page and become a true partner in a different future: a future that respects human life and dignity,” they continued.

Before COP27, Egypt detained an Indian environmental activist, who was released on Monday.

After Abdel Fattah el-2013 Sisi’s toppling of Egypt’s first democratically elected leader Mohamed Morsi, public protests are practically forbidden.

El-Sisi, elected president in 2014, says security measures stabilized Egypt. Liberal and Muslim Brotherhood activists were targeted.

Government captivity killed Morsi in 2019.

A rights group reported that Egyptian security forces arrested over 70 people for calling for protests at the meeting.

The Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF), a non-governmental organization, reported that by Monday, at least 67 persons had been arrested in Cairo and other cities and appeared before state security prosecution in connection with November 11 protests.

“In your address, please bring the voices of the unjustly imprisoned into the audience. “Alaa Abd el-tremendous Fattah’s voice for democracy is close to being extinguished,” the laureates said.

Supporters claim Abd el-Fattah will be dead or free for the climate meeting next week after a full hunger strike.

The activist wrote to his family that he would begin a zero-calorie hunger strike on Tuesday and quit drinking water on November 6, when global climate negotiations begin. The influential 40-year-old writer has been on a partial hunger strike for months, ingesting barely 100 calories a day, raising health worries.

The 2011 pro-democracy uprisings in the Middle East brought Abd el-Fattah to fame.

He was sentenced in 2014 for illegal protesting and assaulting a police officer. Amid serving a five-year sentence, he was arrested in a crackdown after rare anti-government rallies in 2019.

He received another five-year sentence for propagating fake news in December 2021. He also faces charges of exploiting social media and joining a “terrorist” group, referring to the Muslim Brotherhood, which authorities declared a “terrorist organization” in 2013.