In London on February 25th, the mother of imprisoned Egyptian-British dissident Alaa Abd el-Fattah was hospitalized on Monday night as she approached the 150th day of her hunger strike in protest against her son's incarceration in Egypt.
Laila Soueif, 68, has shed nearly 30 kilograms since commencing her fast in September. She was taken to St. Thomas' hospital after her blood sugar plummeted to dangerously low levels, as reported by her daughter on X.
Abd el-Fattah, a software developer and blogger who gained prominence as an activist during the 2011 Arab Spring, received a five-year prison sentence in Egypt for a social media post. This verdict came after multiple prior periods of imprisonment, both pre and post the uprising.
Soueif, a mathematics professor, has sustained her hunger strike, subsisting solely on herbal tea, black coffee, and rehydration salts, since Egyptian authorities failed to release Abd el-Fattah on the scheduled date of September 29th.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Foreign Secretary David Lammy have broached Abd el-Fattah's situation with their Egyptian counterparts on numerous occasions.
Earlier this month, Starmer met with Soueif and pledged to exhaust all efforts to secure Abd el Fattah's freedom.
Additionally, Abd el Fattah's former cellmate, Australian journalist [Name], participated in the hunger strike alongside Soueif for three weeks last month.