Egypt: PEN International sounds the alarm over Alaa Abd El-Fattah’s worsening health in prison
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“We are deeply concerned for Alaa’s health and well-being in prison as he continues his hunger strike. We are all shocked to see the toll it has had on his mother, Laila, who has been previously hospitalised for her own ongoing hunger strike, and we are terrified to think about Alaa’s condition in detention while the Egyptian government continues to deny him access to a lawyer and UK consular visits. Neither Alaa nor Laila should have to put their lives at risk to secure his fundamental right to freedom and human dignity. The UK should ensure his reunification with his family immediately,” said Burhan Sonmez, President of PEN International.
1 May 2025 - PEN International is gravely concerned about the worsening health of British-Egyptian writer and prominent activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah after the family reported his treatment by doctors in prison. The UK government should take urgent action to secure his release immediately.
PEN International considers Alaa Abd El-Fattah’s detention arbitrary and in violation of his legitimate exercise of his right to freedom of expression. We reiterate our call for his immediate and unconditional release and hold the Egyptian authorities responsible for his health and well-being pending his release.
Alaa Abd El-Fattah’s family reported that his health sharply deteriorated in April, and he is being treated in Wadi El-Natrun prison in Egypt after experiencing several incidents of vomiting and stomach issues. He has been on hunger strike since 1 March 2025 after hearing news of his mother, Laila Souief’s hospitalisation in London following her own hunger strike. According to the family, Alaa has only consumed herbal tea, black coffee and rehydration salts over the past two months.
He was able to send a letter to his family, in which he reported vomiting on 12, 16 and 18 April while experiencing ‘severe stomach pains’ and feeling ‘very unwell’. The family also expressed grave concerns to PEN International about Alaa’s rapidly declining health in prison and that his body is already vulnerable as a result of his previous hunger strikes.
In February 2025, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer publicly pledged to do all he could to secure Alaa Abd El-Fattah’s release and reunite him with his family. However, there has been no tangible progress in freeing Alaa over the following months. PEN International has previously denounced the persistent failure to secure the release of British-Egyptian writer Alaa Abd El-Fattah by the British government and then Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, despite their pledge in 2022 to work ‘hard to secure his release’.
Alaa Abd El-Fattah remains arbitrarily detained in Egypt despite having fully served an unjust five-year prison sentence in connection with the exercise of his right to free expression. He has been in poor health for many months due to his ongoing arbitrary detention and from undertaking a prolonged hunger strike in 2022.
On 29 September 2024, Abd El-Fattah completed his five-year sentence; however, Egyptian authorities continued to arbitrarily detain him beyond his prison term. According to his family, the Egyptian authorities refuse to recognise more than two years that Abd El-Fattah spent in pre-trial detention, pushing his release date to January 2027. Egyptian authorities also deny Abd El-Fattah’s access to a lawyer and British consular visits. His mother, academic and human rights activist Laila Soueif, started an open-ended hunger strike on 29 September 2024 to protest Abd El-Fattah’s arbitrary imprisonment.
Arrested in September 2019, Alaa Abd El-Fattah was sentenced to five years in prison in 2021 on trumped-up charges, including ‘joining an illegal organisation’, ‘spreading false news,’ and ‘misusing social media’ after a grossly unfair trial before the Emergency State Security Court. Abd El-Fattah has been subjected to torture and other ill-treatment and held in deplorable prison conditions, as well as prohibited from accessing books and newspapers, all of which have impacted his health. In 2022, Abd El-Fattah underwent a lengthy hunger strike in protest at his detention conditions and to call attention to the human rights situation in Egypt. This is his second period of imprisonment; he previously served an unjust five-year sentence for participating in a peaceful protest in 2013.
Born on 18 November 1981, dual British-Egyptian national Alaa Abd El-Fattah was a crucial voice of the 2011-2012 Arab Spring uprisings, during which he documented human rights abuses and advocated for democracy. His book, You Have Not Yet Been Defeated (2022, Seven Stories Press), which compiles some of his profoundly influential writings, has received widespread acclaim. He won the 2022 Electronic Frontier Foundation Award for Democratic Reform Advocacy and PEN Canada’s One Humanity Award in 2023. Abd El-Fattah was named the 2024 Writer of Courage by PEN Pinter Prize 2024 winner Arundhati Roy.
For more information, please contact Mina Thabet, Head of the MENA Region, at PEN International, email: [email protected]
For media queries, please contact Sabrina Tucci, PEN International Communications and Campaigns Manager, [email protected]
