This political prisoner will stop drinking water when world leaders arrive in Egypt

Egyptian pro-democracy activist Alaa Abdel-Fattah, seen here in 2014, has spent most of the last decade behind bars. He told his family he has stopped eating altogether, and will stop drinking water on Sunday. (Nariman El-Mofty/The Associated Press)

Sanaa Seif is scheduled to visit her brother in prison in a week and a half. But she fears that by then, it will already be too late.

Alaa Abdel-Fattah, a U.K. citizen and one of Egypt's most prominent political prisoners, began a full hunger strike on Tuesday in the Wadi El-Natrun prison complex north of Cairo, where he's currently being held.

He plans to stop drinking water on Nov. 6, as world leaders gather in the country for COP27, the United Nations climate change conference.

He's trying to draw attention to his own case, and those of the tens of thousands of other political prisoners in the country. His family is begging for his freedom, saying that if he's not released, he'll surely die behind bars. 

"I'm really scared," Seif told As It Happens host Nil Köksal. "I sometimes lose it … and I panic. But I try to pull myself together and remind myself that as long as he's alive, then there is a chance."

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Seif is in London, where she recently met with members of the U.K.'s Foreign Office about her brother's case after staging a sit-in outside the ministry. She'll be heading to COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, too, to raise his case with British delegates and other world leaders.

"It's not over until it's over," she said. "I'm scared. But I also understand that he's fighting to live and he's trying to maximize the potential of getting out. So we have to also help him in that fight and keep campaigning."

Imprisoned for most of the last decade

Abdel-Fattah, 40, rose to prominence during the 2011 pro-democracy uprisings that swept the Middle East and in Egypt, and has spent most of the past decades behind bars.

He was first sentenced in 2014 after being convicted of taking part in an unauthorized protest and allegedly assaulting a police officer. He was released in 2019 after serving a five-year term but was arrested again later that year in a crackdown that followed anti-government protests.

In December 2021, he was sentenced to another five-year term on charges of spreading false news. He also faces separate charges of misusing social media and joining a terrorist group — a reference to the banned Muslim Brotherhood.

His family has also been a target of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi's government. Seif has herself been imprisoned for her activism. 

But with her brother starving in prison, she says her freedom tastes bittersweet.

"I can't really feel that I'm free," she said. "I can't feel that it's over until we're all back together, reunited in a safe place."