An Australian journalist on hunger strike

21/1/2025 10:34

An Australian journalist, who

was once jailed for 400 days in Egypt, said he is staging a

hunger strike in London to press the British government to help

secure the release of jailed Egyptian-British dissident Alaa Abd

el-Fattah.



Abd el-Fattah, a software developer and blogger who rose to

prominence as an activist in the 2011 Arab Spring, was jailed

for five years in Egypt over a social media post, a sentence

that followed several previous spells in prison, including

before and after the uprising.



Peter Greste on Monday joined Abd el-Fattah's mother, who

has been on a hunger strike ever since Egyptian authorities

failed to free her son on a scheduled release date of Sept. 29

last year.



The duo demonstrated with placards and pictures of Abd

el-Fattah just outside the entrance to Downing Street as they

sought a meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.



Both Starmer and British Foreign Secretary David Lammy have

raised Abd el-Fattah's case with their Egyptian counterparts a

number of times, with Lammy doing so most recently on Thursday,

Britain's Foreign Office said.



"We continue to press on his case at the highest levels of

the Egyptian government," a spokesperson said. "Officials from

the Foreign Office continue to call for consular access to Mr

El-Fattah and for his release."



Greste, who plans to stage a 21-day hunger strike, was in a

neighbouring prison cell to Abd el-Fattah in 2013. Greste had

been accused of helping a terrorist group while on assignment

for broadcaster Al Jazeera, charges he said were bogus and

politically motivated.



"He saved my life. He was an inspiration to me. I want to

now repay what he gave me," Greste told Reuters at the

demonstration, crediting Abd el-Fattah with guiding him through

a "really dark" period in prison.



Egypt's interior ministry did not immediately respond to a

request for comment.



Laila Soueif, Abd el-Fattah's mother, who says she has lost

nearly 25 kilograms (55 pounds) in the hunger strike in which

she only consumes water and hydration salts, said she had met

British officials including National Security Adviser Jonathan

Powell to press her son's case.



"I've now become completely fed up," said Soueif, 68, a

mathematics professor. "I almost wish I would collapse and this

thing would get resolved one way or another."