Hello, 

It’s been a long time. I hope you are all well and I’m sorry we haven’t updated you for so long.

It has been hard to find good news to share with those of you following our campaign. Since November 2022, when then Prime Minister Rishi Sunak promised that he was “totally committed to resolving Alaa’s case”, we’ve sadly seen no progress on his case. 

British officials have still not been able to see Alaa and the Egyptian authorities refuse to recognise his British citizenship. We feel the previous government badly let Alaa and our family down, despite the commitments they made when they met with us. There was just no progress, no real effort.

To be honest, we had become a bit despondent. That’s why you haven’t heard from us for so long.

The government would say they want to see Alaa free, but then do nothing. And he just lost more years of his life, more years away from Khaled, who is here in Brighton. 

The positive news is Alaa is doing better than he was in 2022. He has really felt the love and support of the hundreds of thousands of people that care about him, and that is giving him strength to keep on. He’s really grateful. And that support, and the attention that was on him, meant he was moved from truly awful prison conditions to a more humane situation now, and most importantly, away from the officer responsible for his torture.

Three months from now, on 29 September, Alaa will have served the five years he was sentenced after an illegitimate trial, for the crime of sharing a Facebook post about torture in prison in Egypt. But we are concerned they are not going to release him. 

Now we have a new government in the UK, our family is hopeful that this will provide an opportunity for a fresh push on Alaa’s case.

The new Foreign Secretary David Lammy repeatedly supported our campaign during his time in opposition. Back in 2022, he attended our sit-in outside the Foreign Office, and he called on the UK government to do more to get Alaa back home, including limiting the Egyptian ambassador’s access to the government. He raised Alaa’s case in parliament many times.

Now David Lammy is Foreign Secretary we are hopeful that he will remain committed to Alaa’s freedom and do more than the three previous Prime Ministers, who each said they wanted to see Alaa free, but then did nothing about it. 

I attach a photo of Alaa's son Khaled, with my daughter Lana .. the two sources of light and joy to Alaa in this never-ending ordeal. I hope soon I will get to send you a similar photo with Alaa in it.

Love and solidarity,

Mona