![UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer leaves 10 Downing Street ahead of Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) session in the House of Commons in London, on February 12, 2025. [İlyas Tayfun Salcı - Anadolu Agency]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/AA-20250212-37031523-37031506-KEIR_STARMER_LEAVES_DOWNING_STREET_AHEAD_OF_PMQS-1-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1)
UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer vowed on Sunday to do all that he can to secure the release of a British-Egyptian pro-democracy activist jailed in Egypt. Alaa Abdel Fattah was arrested in Egypt in September 2019 and sentenced to five years in prison after being convicted of “spreading false news” by sharing a Facebook post about torture in Egyptian prisons. His mother Laila Soueif has been on hunger strike for 140 days in protest against her son’s imprisonment.
“Having met Laila Soueif this week, my message is clear,” said Starmer. “I will do all that I can to secure the release of her son Alaa Abdel Fattah and reunite him with his family. We will continue to raise his case at the highest levels of the Egyptian government and press for his release.”
Abdel Fattah, 43, was a prominent figure in the 2011 uprising that ended three decades of rule by Hosni Mubarak. He was granted British citizenship in 2022 through Soueif, 68, who was born in the UK.
She has been living on coffee, tea and rehydration salts since 29 September last year, the day that her son completed five years in prison, including time spent in pre-trial detention. She has demonstrated daily outside Starmer’s office in Whitehall.
In an interview with AFP on Monday, Soueif urged Starmer to secure her son’s freedom, warning, “I don’t have time.”
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