COP27: Activists land in Egypt to call for Alaa Abdel Fattah's release

Activists, politicians and members of jailed British-Egyptian citizen Alaa Abdel Fattah family descended on Sharm el-Sheikh on Monday seeking the activist's release during the COP27 climate summit. 

Sanaa Seif - sister of Alaa - landed in Sharm el-Sheikh on Monday, after British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and other world leaders flew in for the yearly climate meeting.

I am at #COP27 as my brother’s life is in danger. We need proof he is still alive by noon every day @RishiSunak are you doing enough to #FreeAlaa? Will you confirm he is still alive when you speak to Sisi?

— Sanaa (@sana2) November 7, 2022

Sunak has promised to personally raise Abdel Fattah's case with Egyptian authorities, who went on a desperate water strike on Sunday. 

"I'm here to do my best to try and shed light on my brother's case and to save him," Seif told reporters after arriving in Sharm el-Sheikh in the early hours of Monday.

"I'm really worried. I'm here to put pressure on all leaders coming, especially Prime Minister Rishi Sunak," said Seif, who had recently been leading a sit-in outside the British Foreign Office in London.

After over 200 days of hunger strike, Abdel Fattah is now refusing all food and water meaning he could potentially die while the COP27 conference takes place. 

Despite the Sisi regime’s hostile attitude to dissent, many Egyptian and international organisations are using the climate summit to raise the pressing issue of political prisoners. 

سعدت اليوم باستقبال الأمينة العامة لمنظمة العفو الدولية الدكتورة أنياس كالامار في زيارتها الأولى لمصر بمناسبة #COP27 بمقر المبادرة المصرية للحقوق الشخصية @EIPR حيث ناقشنا أجندة العدالة المناخية المطروحة على المؤتمر وأزمة حقوق الإنسان في مصر ثم عقدنا مؤتمراً صحفياً مشتركاً pic.twitter.com/yqZhVfIFph

— hossam bahgat حسام بهجت (@hossambahgat) November 6, 2022

Amnesty International held their first press conference in Egypt since 2013 on Monday, on the sidelines of COP27, alongside the local NGO Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. 

"If they do not want to end up with a death they should have and could have prevented, they must act now," said Amnesty chief Agnes Callamard during the conference about Abdel Fattah.

Callamard met with mother of Abdel Fattah's mother, Laila Souief, who lives in Cairo and has campaigned for her son's release.