In light of the most recent developments reported by the world’s press regarding the imprisonment of the British-Egyptian citizen Alaa Abd El-Fattah in Egypt, Scottish PEN renews its previous call made together with PEN International and the other PEN centres active in the United Kingdom that the Prime Minister, the Foreign Secretary and the UK government:
- demand the immediate and unconditional release of Alaa Abd El-Fattah by the Egyptian authorities; and
- call for immediate access to adequate medical care and ensure that he can access family and lawyer visits and Alaa’s unrestricted access to basic necessities pending his release.
Alaa Abd El-Fattah is a British-Egyptian citizen, and an award-winning writer and software developer. His five-year prison sentence has been widely condemned, including by Amnesty International, the Committee to Protect Journalists and Human Rights Watch, as well as PEN International.
Ricky Monahan Brown, President of Scottish PEN, has said:
I am struck by the way Alaa’s thoughts on writing set forth how the universal rights underpinning the PEN International Charter can have effects in the world. The fact and conditions of his continued imprisonment are a tragedy for Alaa, his family, Egypt, the United Kingdom and the world. We call on the United Kingdom government to use its full diplomatic leverage to secure his release.
Photo by Oscar Ivan Esquivel Arteaga on Unsplash