Nov. 14 (UPI) — The family of a pro-democracy political prisoner in Egypt has received “proof of life” Monday after he went on a hunger strike for about seven months leading authorities to intervene.
Alaa Abd el-Fattah’s mother visited the prison where he is being held Monday and was given a letter he had written that his family said is in his handwriting.
“I’m so relieved. We just got a note from prison to my mother, Alaa is alive, he says he’s drinking water again as of Nov. 12. He says he’ll say more as soon as he can. It’s definitely his handwriting. Proof of life, at last,” his sister Sanaa Seif posted on Twitter. “Why did they hold this back from us for 2 days?!”
Fattah, 40, has been jailed on and off for most of the last nine years after he was a key figure in the Egyptian uprising in 2011. He was most recently arrested in December 2021 and sentenced to five years in prison on charges of spreading false news.
He had been on a partial hunger strike for months, consuming just 100 calories per day, until he escalated his protest and stopped drinking water on Nov. 6 to coincide with the United Nations’ COP27 climate summit which met in Egypt. His family had not received proof he was alive in the last week.
Ahdaf Soueif, Fattah’s aunt, shared the contents of the brief letter to Twitter in which he assured his family that he began drinking water on Saturday.
“I am sure you are very worried about me,” Fattah said in the letter. “I started drinking water today (Saturday). My vitals are good, and I am receiving medical care. I miss you a lot and I love you a lot.”
Egyptian authorities said on Thursday they performed a “medical intervention” on Fattah, whose plight has become symbolic of the larger 60,000 political prisoners human rights groups estimate are being held in that country.
