He is on the other side of the glass in the huge new Wadi el-Natrun prison, north of Cairo. He’s talking into the handset at top speed, gesturing, his movements precise as he taps the narrow shelf. He’s in prison blue with close-cropped hair and beard. My sister holds the other handset, listens and nods. We know National Security are listening in. He’s talking to his mother about prisoners he’s left behind in Tora Maximum Security Prison Two, and what they need. He is completely like himself – except his face is thinner, and his heavy sweater tells us that after 47 days of hunger strike his body can’t stay warm.
Alaa Abd el-Fattah’s British citizenship came through on 15 December. We thought that since – unlike in the case of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe – Egypt and Britain enjoyed and often broadcast “important strategic relationships”, consular visits would be granted quickly. Held in pre-trial detention since September 2019, Alaa had been denied sunshine, exercise, books, writing material, music, bedding. The officer in charge of the prison was personally hostile. The atmosphere was lethal. On 20 December, he was sentenced to a further five years of imprisonment – taking no account of the preceding two. The only hope we had of bettering his conditions and negotiating his release relied on the intervention of the UK Foreign Office. When for 15 weeks Egypt’s government stalled the British embassy’s repeated requests for a visit, Alaa took matters into his own hands: on 2 April he went on hunger strike.
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