‘I will keep up Downing Street hunger strike until my son is free or I collapse’

Laila Soueif has dedicated her life to standing up for human rights in her home of Egypt, but currently she is living through an ordeal like no other.

It is now 107 days since her son, the activist and blogger Alaa Abn El-Fattah, should have been freed from a Cairo prison following the end of a five-year sentence.

But Alaa – a British citizen – is still not home with his son in Brighton. As a result, 68-year-old Laila is 107 days into a painful, grinding hunger strike.

‘I get tired more easily, and certain things tire me more than others,’ she told Metro when asked how she is feeling physically. ‘I’m probably more short-tempered and more easily tearful.’

Yesterday, she relocated her protest from the Foreign Office to outside the gates of Downing Street after concluding the only thing that will get her son released is more pressure from the prime minister himself.

Laila said: ‘I’ve always been stubborn and I go after what I want, but this is probably the first time that I really had to sustain my stubbornness for so long.

‘And the stakes have been so high, because the aim is really for my son to get back alive.

‘In a way, it’s like the easiest decision I’ve ever had to make – or once I made it, it’s the easiest decision I’ve ever had to sustain, because it’s natural for a mother to be willing to do absolutely anything for her son.’

Her decision to forgo all food and subsist solely on black coffee, herbal tea and three packets of rehydration salts a day has led to concern from her family, who she said are ‘not particularly happy about what’s happening’.

It is clear why. She has lost at least 23kg of weight so far, and the days she has spent on London streets with a picture of Alaa have included some of the coldest so far this winter.

Alaa himself was ‘very worried’ when Laila and his sister Sanaa visited his prison for Coptic Christmas last week.

Laila said: ‘He was a bit reassured to find me still on my feet.

‘But at the back of my mind, I thought that this could be my last visit, and I guess it was at the back of his mind too.’

A leading figure in the 2011 Egyptian uprising, Alaa has spent much of the last decade behind bars. He was locked up for five years in 2019 over a Facebook post that alleged human rights abuses in the country’s jails.

That sentence came to an end on September 29 last year, but he was not released.

‘From his point of view, he’s sitting there in prison, nothing is happening,’ Laila said.

‘We tried, as far as possible to do so in 20 minutes of monitored speech, to explain to him that things were happening, but we were not getting any results.’

Now-Foreign Secretary David Lammy highlighted Alaa’s plight several times while in opposition, while Sir Keir Starmer also raised the issue with then-PM Rishi Sunak in November 2022.

Since Labour won last year’s election, Lammy has met with Laila and two of Alaa’s sisters. Sir Keir has also written to Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi calling for the writer’s release.

However, Laila said: ‘I really want Mr. Starmer to intervene as strongly as possible.

‘I know that Mr. Starmer has sent a letter to President Sisi, but obviously, as far as it’s been announced, there haven’t been any results yet from this letter. So I’m hoping that Mr. Starmer will push a bit more strongly, speak personally to President Sisi and persuade him to end this situation.’

Earlier today, she looked down from the public gallery of the House of Commons as Lammy was pressed on the details of his response during Foreign Office questions.

The foreign secretary said: ‘This remains a number one issue. We have raised it on every single occasion and we continue to press for clemency, for understanding, and for his release.’

However, he also said the UK’s relationship with Egypt as ‘multifaceted’, citing the country’s role in a potential Gaza ceasefire deal as an example.

Lammy concluded: ‘In the end, this is in the hands of the Egyptians.’

Brendan O’Hara, the SNP MP who serves as the vice-chair for the new all-party parliamentary group on arbitrary detention, said it was ‘utterly incumbent’ on the prime minister and foreign secretary to get Alaa released.

He said: ‘I think the time has come now for the UK to play hardball, because Laila has shown she’s not going to give this up. Laila has shown she is in this for the long haul.’

A government spokesperson said: ‘Our priority remains securing the release of Mr El-Fattah so that he can be reunited with his family.

‘We continue to press on his case at the highest levels of the Egyptian government.

‘This includes the Prime Minister writing to President Sisi on multiple occasions and the Foreign Secretary raising this case with the Egyptian Foreign Minister a number of times, including most recently on January 12.

‘Officials from the Foreign Office continue to call for consular access to Mr El-Fattah and for his release.’

Laila said her son ‘actually has to walk out of prison’ before she would even consider ending her fast, as she ‘can’t believe in promises anymore’.

She said: ‘I’m on my hunger strike until that happens or until I collapse.’

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