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The UK foreign secretary has been accused of ignoring the family of a British citizen jailed on “bogus charges” in Egypt, despite passionately campaigning for his release in opposition.
Sanaa and Mona Seif, sisters of activist and author Alaa Abd el-Fattah, claimed David Lammy had refused to meet with them since being given the top job more than two months ago.
Mr Lammy worked tirelessly for Mr el-Fattah’s release as shadow foreign secretary and joined the family’s protest outside the Foreign Office in 2022.
Sanaa told The Independent: “He was once our champion. He was our guy. He knew every detail. Now we are not so sure. Mr Lammy will not even meet with us. It is unacceptable.
“It’s very hard to stay hopeful when it feels like the foreign secretary is ignoring us. It was easier to meet Conservative foreign secretaries.”
Mr el-Fattah, 42, has spent nearly a decade behind bars and was handed an “unjust” five-year prison sentence in 2021 for sharing a social media post, according to Amnesty International.
He is due to be released on 29 September, but his family and lawyers fear he will be hit by Egypt’s “revolving door system” – where political prisoners are hit with fresh charges to prevent them from being freed.
Mr el-Fattah was a figurehead of Egypt’s 2011 uprising that overthrew the former dictator Hosni Mubarak, but was detained after a sweeping anti-democratic crackdown by President Abdel-Fatah al-Sisi.
As shadow foreign secretary, Mr Lammy championed Mr el-Fattah’s case and accused the former Conservative government of letting down British citizens by failing to take action.
In 2022, he called the Conservative government’s diplomacy “weak” and urged “serious diplomatic consequences” for the Egyptian government if Mr el-Fattah was not released.
In the same year, Mr Lammy told BBC Radio 4: “We have a £4bn trade deal with Egypt, that is tremendous leverage.
“Why has it taken months and months for the Foreign Office to act? I’ve been asking for them to act, and I’ve got to tell you that UK citizens have been badly let down.”
However, Mr Lammy was pictured with the Egyptian foreign minister on Wednesday in a meeting intended to “promote economic growth and investment” between Britain and Egypt.
Mr el-Fattah’s sister Mona added: “We are asking for the government to ensure Alaa is released and believe the UK could do this if it wanted to.
“If the UK government is unable to convince Egypt to release Alaa, then I honestly do not know what the point in the Foreign Office is.”
Mahmoud Shalaby, Amnesty International’s Egypt Researcher, said: “Alaa Abd el-Fattah has spent most of the last decade being repeatedly arrested and unjustly imprisoned simply for peacefully exercising his human rights.
“He is a prisoner of conscience. He should never have been forced to spend a single minute behind bars. The Egyptian authorities must immediately and unconditionally release him and allow him to reunite with his loved ones at long last.”
A Foreign Office spokesperson told The Independent that “the foreign secretary is committed to trying to resolve Alaa’s case” and said the family have since been offered a meeting.
They added: “The foreign secretary raised the need to make progress on Alaa’s case in his first meeting with the Egyptian foreign minister, which took place at the UN this week.”