British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abdel Fattah ends hunger strike – letter

• Alaa Abdel Fattah, a British-Egyptian pro-democracy activist, has ended his seven-month hunger strike.
• He began refusing water on November 6, to coincide with COP27 climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh.
• Prison officials informed his mother that he had undergone an unspecified “medical intervention” last Thursday.

Alaa Abdel Fattah, a British-Egyptian pro-democracy activist, has informed his family in a letter that he has ended a seven-month hunger strike in an Egyptian prison.

“I’ve ended my strike. I’ll go over everything with you on Thursday “says his mother in a letter dated Monday.

His sister stated that she was “cautiously relieved,” but that the family needed to see him for themselves.

It comes just a day after they received a letter from Abdel Fattah stating that he had resumed drinking water on Saturday.

The 40-year-old began refusing water on November 6, to coincide with the start of the COP27 climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, in the hope of putting pressure on Egypt to allow British consular officials to visit him.

Last Thursday, prison officials informed his mother that he had undergone an unspecified “medical intervention with the knowledge of a judicial authority.” Meanwhile, Egypt’s public prosecution claimed that he was in “good health,” but provided no evidence.

The United Kingdom, the United Nations, and several other countries have all called for his release.

Laila Soueif, Abdel Fattah’s 66-year-old mother, has been waiting for news outside Wadi al-Natroun prison in the desert north-west of Cairo every day since he began his hunger strike.

According to the family, prison officials handed her a short note written by Alaa on Tuesday morning.

It begins with him asking how she is and thanking her for the MP3 player he mentioned in his Saturday letter, in which he announced that he was drinking water again.

“I’ll see you on the visit day and tell you everything,” the new letter says, “and we’ll get back to long letters after the visit.”

“The important thing is that I’d like to celebrate my birthday with you on Thursday; I haven’t celebrated in a long time, and I’d like to celebrate with my cellmates, so bring a cake and normal provisions; I’ve broken my strike. Everything will be explained on Thursday.”

Abdel Fattah’s monthly prison visit with his family was already scheduled for Thursday. The visits are typically 20 minutes long and are conducted through a glass barrier.

In a statement, the family stated that they had no further information about what had occurred inside the prison or what had influenced Alaa’s decision.

Mona Seif, Abdel Fattah’s sister, said, “I feel cautiously relieved now that he’s not on hunger strike, but my heart won’t be truly settled until Thursday when my mother and sister see him with their own eyes.”

The novelist Ahdaf Soueif, Abdel Fattah’s aunt, told the BBC World Service’s Newshour programme that the family needed to know what had caused him to end his hunger strike.

“[I am] relieved on one level, a very basic level. But on another level, I’m even more concerned “She stated.

“Alaa is a serious, thoughtful, and dedicated individual. And we need to know the circumstances in order to go on hunger strike, keep it going for 220 days, and then break it.”

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