Egypt’s jailed dissident Abdel Fattah becomes British

CAIRO: Egyptian activist Alaa Abdel Fattah, a key figure in the country’s 2011 revolution, has obtained British citizenship from inside prison, his family said on Monday.

The family has appealed to British authorities to seek consular access to visit him in jail. Abdel Fattah, along with his sisters Mona and Sanaa, gained UK citizenship through their mother, maths professor Laila Soueif, who was born in London in 1965.

As a British citizen, Abdel Fattah also requests he be allowed to communicate with the family’s lawyers in the UK "so that they can take all possible legal measures regarding not only the violations he has been subjected to, but all the crimes against humanity he has witnessed during his imprisonment," according to a statement released by Abdel Fattah’s sisters. The news comes 10 days into a hunger strike which Abdel Fattah began on April 2, the first day of Ramadan, in protest at his prison conditions, according to his sister Mona Seif.