In a joint letter, the Committee to Protect Journalists and 31 other press freedom and human rights organizations urged UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer to intensify his diplomatic efforts to secure Egyptian-British writer Alaa Abdelfattah’s release. The letter follows a February call between Starmer and Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, which has yet to yield any progress in Abdelfattah’s case.
Abdelfattah has spent nearly a decade in prison and now faces an additional two years of detention—despite Egyptian legal provisions that should have guaranteed his release last September. On May 20, the journalist’s 69-year-old mother, Laila Soueif, resumed a near-total hunger strike in protest.
On March 4, CPJ led a joint letter signed by 50 prominent human rights leaders, Nobel laureates, writers, and public figures, urging President el-Sisi to issue a presidential pardon for Abdelfattah.
Read the full letter in English here.
This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.
CPJ Staff | Radio Free (2025-05-22T17:31:51+00:00) CPJ, others call on UK prime minister to exert diplomatic pressure to secure writer Alaa Abdelfattah’s release. Retrieved from https://www.radiofree.org/2025/05/22/cpj-others-call-on-uk-prime-minister-to-exert-diplomatic-pressure-to-secure-writer-alaa-abdelfattahs-release/
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