Hi,

Yesterday Liz Truss gave her first speech outside Downing Street as the new Prime Minister.

I don't know whether to be hopeful or not. 

In 9 days I’m going to see Alaa for a visit in prison. 

At the end of this letter I’m going to ask you to click through and send an email to your MP.

But first I want to ask you about books.

Outside, we work and we hope. Inside, reading is the only thing keeping Alaa alive. From his latest letter:

"Right now, the only remedy available to me is to study, or—the next best thing—to read things that offer either complexity or imagination. If I can move around, make tea, drink it, while my thoughts or fantasies are still engaged in what I’ve just read, that help."

In 9 days I’ll drive to the prison for the monthly visit. I’ll take books with me, so if you have ideas for things he might like, please write them in the comments. Alaa is a geek, a techie - what has he missed in these nine years? We’re always looking for ways to make him feel connected to the world that’s changing so quickly on the outside. 

I move between feeling excited and anxious.

Is it going to be one of those harsh 20 minutes of seeing him behind a glass barrier, barely being able to hear his voice through the buzzing of those horrible handsets that they listen in to our conversations through? Or might I finally be able to actually hug him?

Last time my sister, Sanaa, saw him he was talking about escalating to a total, zero-calorie, hunger strike soon. She tried to talk him out of it, to have some patience - but the truth is I do understand how he feels. From his letter: 

"The pain itself that comes with the void is hard to describe. I don’t have the language for it, but one of its symptoms is that time seems to pass super slowly while the thoughts come rushing super-fast. Usually dark thoughts, and sometimes quite cruel. There are also long stretches where time just passes, with no thoughts, no rest, and no peace. I’m convinced that music could protect me . . . at least a little."

We’ve been trying for years to get a radio in to him. But, failing that, I have to remind myself that we have good news, Prime Minister Johnson raised his case, this must give him hope.  

Now Liz Truss is the new Prime Minister. Can she get him out before it’s too late? She told parliament two and a half months ago that she was working for Alaa's release. Obviously, it didn’t happen yet. Perhaps the Egyptians were riding out the leadership election, hoping that everyone would forget about Alaa. 

All we can do now is try and prove them wrong. 

We're overwhelmed by how many people have signed this petition in support of Alaa - 130,000 and counting! - and we're sure that together we can finally get him out of prison. In the weeks ahead we'll be doing everything we can to get the UK government to use all the leverage they have with Egypt before it's too late. Now that Liz Truss is PM, and James Cleverly is the Foreign Minister they have to show the Egyptians that they weren't bluffing. 

You've already signed this petition, so thank you. Now, if you were able to take another minute today to send a letter to your MP then we made an easy site here that finds your MP and has a form letter you can use: https://freealaa.net/take-action

Thank you. 

We don’t want to crowd your inbox with too many emails, but of course we’re always writing updates on social media - so that’s a good place to connect more regularly here on twitter and instagram. 

Day 159 of Alaa’s hunger strike.