One of the Middle East’s most prominent former prisoners of conscience, Alaa Abd el-Fattah, arrived in London late last week, at the end of a year-long campaign by his family to free him from prison and lift a travel ban. His mother, Laila Soueif, was on hunger strike for more than nine months, and twice came close to death.
His sister, Mona Seif, said: “I can’t believe it’s happened and Alaa has made it to the UK. We thought it was impossible, but here he is.”
The British-Egyptian nationalwas released in September after spending much of the past 12 years behind bars. He was a figurehead of Egypt’s 2011 uprising, and his internment and torture in Egypt’s worst prisons symbolised president Abdel Fatah al-Sisi’s crackdown on even minor dissent.
James Lynch, a former British diplomat who has assisted Abd el-Fattah’s family in the campaign, said Keir Starmer’s government had succeeded where others had failed after prioritising the case as part of diplomatic relations with Cairo.
‘It has taken a lot of work to solve Alaa’s case – it took it becoming a real political question’
James Lynch, ex-diplomat
“There’s a big difference between saying the right things and making this issue a serious priority,” he said. “It has taken a lot of work to solve Alaa’s case – it took it becoming a real political question. That is the key, not just with Egypt but all governments. The way to solve hostage situations is to make it clear that other elements of the relationship rest on them.”
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In November, Abd el-Fattah attempted to fly to the UK from Cairo to be reunited with his son, who lives in Brighton. He was stopped from boarding the plane and told he was banned from travelling. His family feared he would be arrested. This prompted renewed pressure from the British government.
David Lammy, deputy prime minister and former foreign secretary, welcomed Abd el-Fattah’s return six weeks later as “an immense relief”. In a public letter to Starmer, Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, criticised the government for celebrating his return, claiming that in social media posts Abd el-Fattah was alleged to have endorsed violence against Zionists and police. Abd el-Fattah was labelled a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International for his democracy activism in a police state.
Despite a manifesto pledge to do more to help, the government has declined to publish the number of Britons arbitrarily detained overseas.
Lynch fears that British diplomats often fail to prioritise cases of punitive travel bans in authoritarian regimes. “There’s an element of inertia that needs to be overcome,” he said. “There can be a casual underplaying of how significant these issues are, the impact on people’s lives and the limbo it leaves them in.”
One such case is Karim Ennarah, a rights activist who was briefly jailed after his organisation, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, met publicly in Cairo with foreign diplomats – including one from Britain. In 2020, he was handed a five-year travel ban that has prevented him from reuniting with his wife in London.
Ennarah’s wife, Jessica Kelly, accused British diplomats of failing to act. Hamish Falconer, undersecretary at the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office, told parliament two months ago that he was willing to discuss the case with Kelly’s MP, Meg Hillier, but has since apparently taken little action.
“For five heartbreaking years, the British government has failed to prioritise my husband’s case,” Kelly said. “We have just spent another Christmas apart. Now that Alaa’s case has been resolved, I hope the government will invest effort in securing Karim’s freedom too.”
Photograph by Mohamed El Raai/dpa/Alamy Live News