Laila Soueif has not eaten for greater than three weeks and is previous the stage of feeling hungry.

In London to marketing campaign for the discharge of her British-Egyptian son, Alaa Abdel Fattah, the 68-year-old maths professor insists – stoically – that she’s “not feeling bad at all”.

She went on starvation strike the day after what ought to have been the tip of his five-year jail sentence – although his kinfolk, together with human rights teams, say that he ought to by no means have been in jail in any respect.

Alaa Abdel Fattah is Egypt’s best-known political prisoner. A blogger, author and outspoken pro-democracy activist, he has been in jail for many of the previous decade.

His mom’s starvation strike – she’s surviving on water, rehydration salts and sugarless tea or espresso – is an indication of his household’s growing desperation.

“I’m keeping it up until Alaa is free or I’m taken to hospital in a terrible state,” she tells me. “His life has been on hold for 11 years. It can’t go on.”

Alaa Abdel Fattah was arrested in September 2019, six months after ending a earlier five-year sentence.

He was convicted in 2021 of spreading false information, for sharing a Facebook put up about torture in Egypt. The Egyptian authorities are refusing to rely the greater than two years he spent in pre-trial detention in direction of his time served.

Although he acquired British citizenship in 2021, Egypt has by no means allowed him a consular go to.

In opposition two years in the past, the UK’s then shadow international secretary, David Lammy, referred to as for “serious diplomatic consequences” if entry wasn’t granted instantly and Alaa Abdel Fattah was not freed.

But his household are deeply disillusioned with how the present authorities, and the earlier one, have dealt with his case. They consider the UK has extra leverage with Egypt – a key ally – than it’s ready to make use of.

“I’m not a fool. I don’t expect the government to ruin billions of dollars’ worth of trade deals for my son,” says Laila Souief, who lives in Cairo however was born in London.

She does, nonetheless, anticipate Mr Lammy, now that he’s international secretary, to place strain on Egyptian ministers to take motion, she says.

“At least don’t give them photo opportunities like the one I saw recently of David Lammy grinning ear to ear with the Egyptian foreign secretary.”

A spokesperson for the Foreign Office mentioned: “Our priority remains securing consular access to Mr El-Fattah and his release. We continue to raise his case at the highest levels of the Egyptian government.”

The household’s marketing campaign has been supported by Richard Ratcliffe, who is aware of solely too nicely what drives somebody to go on starvation strike – as he himself did for his spouse, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.

“We reached a point where we needed to do something drastic to shake the government’s complacency, and remind ministers they had a role beyond waiting and wringing or washing their hands,” he tells me of his household’s marketing campaign.

“Alaa’s family will be fully aware that hunger strikes leave scars.”

Alaa Abdel Fattah’s personal starvation strike in 2022, as Egypt hosted the UN local weather convention, led to worldwide strain for his launch and an enchancment in his circumstances in jail.

He is now allowed to learn books and watch sports activities on TV. But he’s “down most of the time” based on his mom, and despondent concerning the future and his probabilities of launch.

He now solely needs to depart Egypt to be along with his 13-year-old son, who’s on the autism spectrum and attends a particular wants college in Brighton.

She says different nations have carried out offers permitting their residents jailed in Egypt to be freed and deported if they offer up their Egyptian nationality.

“He has no wish to lead the Egyptian opposition from Brighton,” she instructed me. “He’s going to be too busy with Khalid.”

As for her and her starvation strike, she says she needs to make herself a “headache” for each the British and Egyptian governments. “That’s the least of what I hope to achieve.” – BBC