Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls on the Egyptian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release British-Egyptian blogger Alaa Abdel Fattah, who on 29 September will have spent five years in arbitrary detention - the full term of his sentence for a trumped-up charge of “spreading false news”.
Abdel Fattah, a leading voice in the protests that toppled former president Hosni Mubarak, was handed a five-year sentence in December 2021, but had already spent more than two years in jail awaiting trial. Under international legal norms and Egypt’s own criminal code, his pre-trial detention should be deducted from his sentence and he should be freed this weekend, but there has been no indication that will happen. His lawyers fear he will be kept in prison until January 2027, five years after the ratification of his sentence, instead of five years after his arrest.
Alaa Abdel Fattah must be immediately freed and guaranteed safe passage to the United Kingdom to be reunited with his son. His trial was manifestly unjust, his imprisonment has been arbitrary, and now he has done his time: every additional day he spends in prison will be a sign of Egypt’s complete disregard for the rule of law, and of the failure of the UK government to defend and protect its citizen despite the blatant abuse of his human rights. If Egypt extends his detention beyond 29 September, the UK must use all available diplomatic means to secure his release and reunite him with his family.
Fiona O'Brien
UK Bureau Director, RSF
Abdel Fattah, whose son and sisters live in the UK, has spent most of the last decade in jail, persecuted and repeatedly detained because of his writing and political activism. His case briefly made headlines during COP27, when he went on a devastating hunger strike, but for most of his detention his family has struggled to get international attention. Despite his British citizenship, UK diplomats have not been able to visit him in jail.
The UK needs action not words
Before his party came to power in July, UK Foreign Minister David Lammy was outspoken in his support for Abdel Fattah, calling him a courageous voice for democracy and a prisoner of conscience, describing his case as gravely urgent, and declaring it an outrage that Britain had not secured consular access. Yet in his first 83 days as foreign minister, Lammy has failed to meet Abdel Fattah’s family or to call publicly for his release.
The UK’s new Labour government even promised in its manifesto to strengthen support for British nationals detained abroad, and to introduce a new right to consular assistance in cases of human rights violations. But Britain continues to have a poor reputation in standing up for its citizens arbitrarily detained or sentenced overseas, or killed in connection with their journalism.
In November 2023, Abdel Fattah’s family filed an urgent appeal to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD), but have yet to hear back. RSF and 26 other human rights organisations wrote to UNGWAD in April pressing for greater urgency.
Abdel Fattah’s case is one of many which have made Egypt one of the worst places in the world to be a journalist. Egypt is ranked 170 out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2024 World Press Freedom Index due to the frequency of censorship, police raids, arrests, shutdowns, sham trials, enforced disappearances and arbitrary detentions.
There are currently 17 journalists imprisoned in Egypt, including Abdel Fattah, at least nine of whom are in pre-trial detention – a tactic used to extend the time journalists spend in jail.
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