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Keir Starmer has spoken to Abdel Fatah al-Sisi amid reports the Egyptian president has directed his officials to study an internal request to grant a pardon to release the British-Egyptian human rights activist and writer Alaa Abd el-Fattah.
Abd el-Fattah’s British-based family are not commenting on developments save to say they are praying for his release.
The readout of Wednesday’s phone call between Sisi and Starmer focused on the Israeli bombing of Hamas members in Qatar, the threat of a mass displacement of Palestinians in Gaza and preparations for the UN conference this month on a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on which the UK and Egypt have been closely cooperating. Sisi welcomed the UK decision to recognise a Palestinian state.
The Downing Street readout also referred to steps to strengthen bilateral ties in the future. The release of Abd el-Fattah is a Foreign Office priority. The two leaders last spoke in July.
Hopes of a pardon were ignited by Egypt’s official National Human Rights Council making a call this week for his release and six other named prisoners, arguing a pardon would contribute to the stability and psychological balance of his family.
It is expected a decision will be taken in a few days. The move represents the most optimistic development in his ordeal since he was arrested six years ago for endorsing a social media post about the death of a prisoner. He was charged with broadcasting false news.
His mother Laila Soueif, a Cairo university professor and herself active politically, started a hunger strikein September 2024 in the UK before being twice hospitalised in London.
Close to death in July and facing desperate appeals from her family not to leave them, she relented after the Foreign Office gave assurances that it was making progress towards his release.
On 21 July the first terrorism chamber of the Cairo criminal court agreed to remove Abd el-Fattah’s name from the list of terrorists, his lawyer Khaled Ali said on Facebook.
Mohamed el-Baqer, Abd el-Fattah’s former lawyer, was one of many to urge Soueif to end the strike, not because her efforts were futile but out of the “horror of losing” her.
Abd el-Fattah is widely regarded as one of Egypt’s most articulate human rights activists and the British government has hit a brick wall in trying to persuade Sisi to release him on the basis that he has served his five-year sentence.
His family claim that the two years he spent in jail in detention from September 2019 before his five-year sentence imposed in December 2021 should have counted as part of his sentence. He has served nearly a full extra year.
His release would enable him to see his teenage son, who lives in Brighton, as well as his two sisters, who have campaigned tirelessly for his release.
The family, anxious not to disturb what may unfold, or to raise their hopes, have highlighted the prospect of a family reunion as they wait to see if Sisi will grant the pardon.
The National Human Rights Council is nominally an independent body in Egypt and did propose Sisi’s release once before, according to sources close to the family.
In its statement asking for a pardon, the council said it was making the appeal “due to the critical family circumstances faced by their relatives. Such a decision would represent a deeply significant moral incentive for the families of those mentioned and would substantially contribute to restoring their stability as well as their psychological and social balance.”
The statement added that “in light of the humanitarian and health conditions experienced by those families which require the presence of their loved ones – the council emphasises that the exercise of the right of presidential pardon falls within Your Excellency’s constitutional prerogatives. It is a power that embodies the humanitarian dimension of the state and reflects Your Excellency’s personal concern for the integrity of the Egyptian family, especially vulnerable groups (children, persons with disabilities, women, and the elderly).”
Earlier this year Abd el-Fattah was on hunger strike in solidarity with his mother. It is believed he now knows that the request for a pardon has been made.
