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Left to right:Jimmy Lai (credit:Hong Kong Free Press). Alaa Abd el-Fattah (credit: Nariman el-Mofty CC)

Bring Alaa Abd el-Fattah and Jimmy Lai home now

The families and supporters of British citizens Jimmy Lai and Alaa Abd el-Fattah, both arbitrarily detained abroad, have appealed to the British government to take urgent action to secure their release.

The calls are all the more urgent given the deteriorating health of Alaa’s mother Laila Soueif, who has been on hunger strike for more than 150 days in protest against her son’s continued incarceration, and the heavy toll prison conditions are taking on Jimmy Lai’s health.

The UK government must do everything it can to bring them home.

Free Alaa

British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah has been in prison in Egypt since 2019, accused of ’spreading false news’. When authorities failed to release him on 29 September last year as he completed his 5-year sentence, his mother Laila began a hunger strike, which she continues to this day. She was admitted to hospital on 24 February, with doctors warning she was at ‘high risk of sudden death’. According to the Freedom for Alaa ([link removed]) campaign, Alaa also started a hunger strike on 1 March, the first day of Ramadan, after the distressing news that Laila was in hospital.

ARTICLE 19 Executive Director Quinn McKew has joined heads of partner human rights organisations, writers, and public media figures in calling for

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi to pardon Alaa ([link removed]) . ‘At a time of regional instability, such an act of clemency would demonstrate the Egyptian leadership’s responsiveness to its own people’s needs, serving as a sign of strength and mercy,’ the joint letter said.

Find out more ([link removed])

Free Jimmy Lai

Publisher and activist Jimmy Lai has been held in Hong Kong on national security charges – including for a candlelight vigil marking the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre – since 2020. Last week, as Lai came to the end of more than 50 days of testimony, his son Sebastien called for an urgent meeting ([link removed]) with Prime Minister Starmer, and for a renewed diplomatic push to secure his release. ‘I don’t want my father to die in jail,’ he told the press.

Despite facing potential life imprisonment, Lai has been denied consular support.

As part of our advocacy for his release, we sent an open letter ([link removed]) to Starmer and Foreign Secretary David Lammy, urging them to support the Jimmy Lai Bill, which had a second reading before Parliament on Friday.

The Bill seeks to enshrine a right that many assume already exists: guaranteed consular assess for British media workers and citizens arbitrarily detained or held hostage, or who face other human rights abuses, abroad. At a time when safeguards for fundamental rights are under attack around the world, the UK must speak up for freedoms: supporting this bill will send a clear message that the UK is committed to protecting its journalists and citizens abroad.

The Jimmy Lai Bill could also inspire similar actions by other democracies, creating a global movement to reinforce consular rights and media freedom.

Find out more ([link removed])

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