UK signed largest single arms licence to Egypt even as British-Egyptian was detained arbitrarily

In December 2023 the largest single arms licence to Egypt was issued for military radars worth £79 million, even as British national and writer Alaa Abd El-Fattah was detained arbitrarily by the regime in Cairo. Since he was detained in September 2019, the UK has licensed at least £237m worth of arms to Egypt, covering items including components for aircraft, helicopters, drones, as well as grenades, bombs and missiles.

This is a conservative total that does not include arms sold using what Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) describes as the “secretive and opaque” Open Licence system. “This allows weapons to be transferred without a total value being published. However, CAAT’s data browsers show that 34 unlimited-value ‘open’ licences were issued during this period.”

Abd El-Fattah’s mother, Laila Soueif, has been on hunger strike for 58 days to secure her son’s release and has already lost 16kg. CAAT calls on the UK government to halt the issuing of arms licences to Egypt until the pro-democracy activist is released by the Egyptian authorities. He was due to be released in September, but has not been freed and, insists CAAT, should never have been imprisoned in the first place after being convicted of “spreading false news” by sharing a Facebook post about torture in Egypt.

According to the Cairo Institute for Human Rights, many human rights defenders and critics of the Egyptian government spend years on end in pretrial detention, ordered and renewed by terrorism courts and military courts through a process of dropping and then renewing legal cases against them, usually on the basis of national security or terrorism charges. In Alaa Abd Al-Fattah’s case, the Egyptian authorities are refusing to acknowledge the years he has spent in pretrial detention.

The UK is the largest single foreign investor in Egypt, and the annual trade between the two countries is around £4.5 billion. However, Egypt remains one of the UK’s 32 human rights priority countries according to the UK’s most recent report on global human rights.

As well as trade, the UK has a strong military relationship with Egypt. In 2018, Cairo and Westminster signed an agreement to conduct joint military training exercises which took place in 2019, along with bilateral ministerial meetings to “discuss enhancing UK-Egypt defence cooperation”.

“Every day that passes is precious time stolen from Alaa and his loved ones by the Egyptian authorities,” said Katie Fallon, Advocacy Manager at CAAT. “Successive British governments have signalled that there will be no meaningful consequences to the arbitrary detention of a dual British-Egyptian national, and instead the largest single arms licence to Egypt on record was signed last year.”

The British government, she added, continues to arm Egypt despite the regime’s widespread use of torture, enforced disappearances and arbitrary detention. “We call on the UK to immediately halt the issuing of arms licences to Egypt until Alaa Abd El-Fattah is released and leverage any partnership with Egypt for systemic reform of human rights in the country.”

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