The Committee to Protect Journalists joined 14 human rights organizations in a November 1 letter urging UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy to suspend all economic and financial partnerships with Egypt until the country frees British writer Alaa Abd el-Fattah, who was due for release on September 29 after completing a five-year prison sentence.
Egyptian authorities have refused to release Abd el-Fattah until January 2027, in violation of articles 482 and 484 of the country’s Criminal Procedure Law.
Abd el-Fattah was first arrested in September 2019, amidst a crackdown on protests calling for President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi’s resignation, and was sentenced to five years in prison on charges of anti-state and false news. In September 2024, CPJ separately called on the Egyptian government to release Abd el-Fattah, drop all remaining charges, and cease manipulating legal statutes to unjustly detain him.
Read the full statement here.
This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.