LONDON: UK leader Keir Starmer pledged on Sunday to do “all that I can” to secure the release of a British-Egyptian pro-democracy campaigner jailed in Egypt.
Alaa Abdel Fattah was arrested by Egyptian authorities in September 2019 and handed a five-year sentence for “spreading false news” in a Facebook post on torture in Egypt´s prisons. His mother Laila Soueif has been on hunger strike for 140 days to protest her son´s imprisonment.
“Having met Laila Soueif this week, my message is clear. I will do all that I can to secure the release of her son Alaa Abdel Fattah and reunite him with his family,” Starmer said in a statement.