The mother of imprisoned British-Egyptian human rights activist Ala Abd el-Fatta said that if there were substantial progress in liberating his son, he would go on a hunger strike again next weekend.
Laila Soueif, 68, said, “I know this step means that you have a week or two left to live.”
She was given a hunger strike for 150 days before collapsed two weeks ago and was granted a request for Cross Hospital in London. During her hunger strike, which began on September 29th last year, she was consuming only herbal tea, black coffee and rehydrated salt.
At the hospital, doctors warned her that she was nearing death, and she herself wrote to the Egyptian Ambassador of London asking her daughter to take her body to Cairo and be given permission to be buried near her deceased husband.
Soueif said: “I didn't feel physically close to death, but as a scientist, I told my daughter that blood sugar was important and then as a scientist, the nurse told me I wanted to put me to sleep.” In the hospital, it was agreed that the girls would drip glucose to raise their blood sugar levels.
She agreed to take 300 calories a day food supplement to spend time negotiating her son's release after calling Egyptian President Abdel Fata Al-Sisi on February 28th, after the British Prime Minister called Kier Fata Al-Sisi, who pressured Fata's release. One of the family's main requests, the phone, coincided with the fourth day of Soueif's hospitalization.
I hope that Fatta will be released as part of the broader pardon linked at the end of Ramadan on March 30th. He sentenced him to more than five years in prison, but was not released last September at the completion of his sentence as Egyptian authorities chose to ignore the two years he spent in detention before his case was heard.
Soueif said her condition stabilized after leaving the hospital, but there was no evidence of progress in the release of her son.
She said: “So, I'm now going back to the Prime Minister, unless there's a dramatic change by March 28th and things aren't moving, I'll go back to my previous hunger strike. I'll see my medical team say the results on the 25th, and I think I know them.”
One of her daughters, Sanaa, said: “My mother looks good since she was released from the hospital, but her muscles are very weak and her glucose levels are low.”
She said the level of information provided by the Foreign Ministry has dropped since Starme's call and has met with department staff to inform her of her mother's decision.
Fatta herself took a hunger strike in prison on February 1st after hearing news of her mother's hospitalization. He has been visited twice recently by his family and says he is determined to show support.
He has sought to provide consular access to British diplomats, but Egypt recognizes his British citizenship and makes the visit impossible despite numerous requests to the British ambassador to visit him.
Recently, on February 26th, priorities told MPS: “I do everything I can and in this case I get a call. I call if I need it. I've raised it before. I'll raise it again. We'll raise it.
