Laila Seif is currently on the 255th day of her hunger strike in protest against the imprisonment of her son Alaa Abd el-Fattah by the Sisi regime, reports Marco Marcelline

Action to free an incarcerated British-Egyptian human rights activist with links to Walthamstow may come “too late” for his frail 69-year-old mother who is on hunger strike, his family say.

Laila Seif is currently on the 255th day of her hunger strike in protest against the imprisonment of her son Alaa Abd el-Fattah. 

He has already served a five-year jail sentence for sharing a Facebook post about a death in police custody but last year his family were told he would not be released until January 2027.

Egyptian authorities have refused to count the two years Alaa spent in pre-trial detention as part of his five-year prison sentence.

Laila has refused food since 30th September 2024 – the day after her son was supposed to be released from prison.

Speaking to the Echo, Alaa’s sister Mona Seif said their mother was close to death after having lost close to half of her body weight. 

“She’s so frail. We’re at a point where the damage from the hunger strike may have become irreversible. She could go at any point.”

Scared that they’d lose their mother last weekend, Mona and her younger sister Sanaa desperately convinced her to accept a glucose intervention after a monitoring device found her levels had dipped below 0.6 mmol/L. 

Despite her critical condition, Laila remains “extraordinarily cognitively present” and “stubborn” as she pursues her hunger strike from her central London hospital bed.

Alaa has himself begun a full hunger strike from his maximum-security prison in the Nile Delta. 

Mona, who lived in Walthamstow from 2022 until January this year, says her brother has been put in enforced isolation and beaten by prison officers.

She said: “My family are only allowed to visit him once a month and we can only speak to him through a glass divider. He is really worried for Laila and he’s going crazy.”

Mona moved to London three years ago to escape severe state hostility towards her campaigning work to free Alaa. 

At first she stayed with a friend in Tottenham but after falling pregnant, Mona decided to raise her young daughter in Walthamstow.

Though Mona now lives in Cambridge with her young family, she has an enduring fondness for the E17 home she spent close to three years in, stating her mother would come and stay with her there.

“I fell in love with it; Walthamstow became my home and it was where I found community,” she adds.

The home also became a base for the family’s activism, allowing them to lobby Westminster directly for Alaa’s release.

In February, the family met with Prime Minister Keir Starmer in Downing Street and were left feeling assured that he was “emotionally invested” in the case. 

However, Mona says that she doesn’t believe the government is “working with the urgency that is required” for his release. 

The UK government has thus far only deployed soft diplomacy towards Egypt, a tool which Mona and her family have long since lost patience for.  

Mona says the UK could instead summon the Egyptian ambassador, sanction politicians, or pause specific trade deals and arms sales to the country. 

She says: “There’s been no tangible change or action despite the affirmative and compassionate pronouncements; If I lose my mother tomorrow, what am I going to do with a letter from Keir Starmer?”

Find out more about the Free Alaa campaign here

No news is bad news 

Independent news outlets like ours – reporting for the community without rich backers – are under threat of closure, turning British towns into news deserts. 

The audiences they serve know less, understand less, and can do less. 

If our coverage has helped you understand our community a little bit better, please consider supporting us with a monthly, yearly or one-off donation. 

Choose the news. Don’t lose the news.

Monthly direct debit 

Annual direct debit

£5 per month supporters get a digital copy of each month’s paper before anyone else, £10 per month supporters get a digital copy of each month’s paper before anyone else and a print copy posted to them each month.  £50 annual supporters get a digital copy of each month's paper before anyone else.

More information on supporting us monthly or annually 

More Information about donations