Jailed writer’s plight a ‘focus’ of Lammy’s meeting with Egyptian counterpart
Jailed writer’s plight a ‘focus’ of Lammy’s meeting with Egyptian counterpart
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David Lammy raised the case of a jailed British-Egyptian pro-democracy activist with officials in Cairo this week, Downing Street said, as it faced criticism from the man’s mother over his ongoing imprisonment. Laila Soueif, who has been on hunger strike for 117 days in protest over her son Alaa Abd El-Fattah’s treatment in Egypt, has urged Sir Keir Starmer to intervene as “time is running out”.
On Friday, she accused the Prime Minister of not having “deigned to reply” to a letter she sent him last week about her son’s plight. Mr Abd El-Fattah, 43, has been detained in Egypt since September 29 2019, and in December 2021 was sentenced to five years in prison after being accused of spreading false news.
Asked about the case on Friday, No 10 said his imprisonment had been a “focus” of Mr Lammy’s meetings with the Egyptian government as he visited the country on Thursday. It added that the Prime Minister had also raised the case with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.
Asked whether the Prime Minister would meet Ms Souief, a Number 10 spokesman said: “Obviously we will set out prime ministerial meetings in the usual way.”. Asked whether he plans to respond to her letter, the official said: “I don’t have an update on that specific point … in terms of timelines, the Foreign Secretary raised this case a number of times with his counterpart, most recently in Saudi Arabia when he met the foreign minister of Egypt there.”.
