I’m writing here about my brother, Alaa Abd El-Fattah. He’s been called the ‘voice of a generation’ for his writings about democracy and his vision for a democratic future in Egypt and beyond. He has been in prison for ten years now - his most recent sentence was for five years for sharing a Facebook post about prison conditions in Egypt. 

We are terrified that they want to keep him in prison until he dies there .. unless we get him out soon.

I've started this petition because I believe that if enough people demand it, the UK can bring Alaa home. He is an Amnesty International Prisoner of Conscience, an Honorary Member of English PEN, and dozens of UK MPs have called for his release. 

Three successive Conservative Prime Ministers said they wanted to see Alaa free and in the UK. But they never did anything about it. 

Now that Labour are in government, we hope that things might be different. 

Alaa has been tortured and held in terrible conditions. For years he was not allowed time out of his cell, to know the time of day, access to any information about the outside world at all. For a writer, imprisoned for his ideas, this was a cruel torture.

He is father to a thirteen year old son, Khaled, and has missed most of his life. 

As people around the world have campaigned for his release, his conditions have improved a little. But Egyptian authorities are blocking visits from British embassy staff.

There has been tremendous support for Alaa in Britain and around the world. Thank you for joining this petition and for trying to help us free him. 

#FreeAlaa #FreeThemAll

PS If you haven't read Alaa’s work, a whole collection of it was published in English in 2021 You Have Not Yet Been Defeated