The mother of jailed British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah is at risk of “sudden death” due to her ongoing hunger strike, doctors have warned, as her blood sugar levels dropped so low they can no longer be detected.
Laila Soueif, 69, was hospitalised on Friday after resuming a full hunger strike, which she first started in September last year.
Ms Soueif has been on hunger strike for 244 days and has lost 36kg – over 40 per cent of her bodyweight – to campaign for Alaa’s release from prison in Egypt, where the writer and human rights defender has been held for over a decade in total. He was most recently detained for sharing a Facebook post about torture in Egypt.
On Friday, doctors at St Thomas’ Hospital in London said her blood sugar level had fallen to such a dangerously low level that it is undetectable by standard medical tests. They also reported her ketone levels, which indicate blood acidity, had risen so high they too could not be measured by hospital equipment.
They warned she is now at risk of “sudden death” and irreversible damage to critical organs, including the heart, brain and kidneys.
“Your low blood sugar remains an unaddressed medical emergency and I am anxious that just a slight further reduction could result in rapid loss of consciousness, and even death,” one of the attending doctors wrote.
Outside St Thomas’ Hospital, Laila’s daughter Sanaa said it was a “miracle” her mother survived the night.
“Bottom line is we’re losing her… there is no time. Keir Starmer needs to act now. Not tomorrow, not Monday. Now. Right now.”
A spokesperson for the Foreign Office said: “We are concerned to hear of Laila’s hospitalisation. We remain in regular contact with Laila and her family and have checked on her welfare. We are committed to securing Alaa Abd El-Fattah’s release and continue to press this at the highest levels of the Egyptian government.”
Last Thursday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer once again spoke to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and “pressed for the urgent release of British national Alaa Abd El-Fattah so that he can be reunited with his family.”
The family says Alaa Abd El-Fattah is also on his 92nd day of hunger strike, consuming only herbal tea, black coffee, and rehydration salts while imprisoned in Wadi El-Natrun in Egypt. He began the hunger strike after his mother’s last hospitalisation in February.
Alaa is a prominent British-Egyptian human rights defender and one of the most recognized faces of the 2011 Arab Spring uprising. He has spent in total over a decade in prison amid a growing crackdown on civil liberties and freedom of expression in Egypt.
He is among thousands of individuals who remain arbitrarily detained without legal basis in Egypt, according to Amnesty International.
