UN demands Egypt release hunger-striking dissident

UN rights chief Volker Turk on Tuesday called on Egypt to immediately release Alaa Abdel Fattah, a jailed dissident on hunger strike, saying his life was at "acute risk".

British-Egyptian Abdel Fattah, 40, was a major figure in the 2011 revolt that toppled longtime president Hosni Mubarak.

After a seven-month hunger strike during which he consumed only "100 calories a day", he has for the past week refused food altogether, and on Sunday he stopped drinking water to coincide with the opening of the COP27 climate summit in Egypt.

"I urge the Egyptian government to immediately release Abdel Fattah from prison and provide him with the necessary medical treatment," Turk said, warning that the activist "is in great danger."

"His dry hunger strike puts his life at acute risk."

"We're very concerned for his health," UN rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva, deploring "a lack of transparency as well around his current condition."

She said Turk had raised Abdel Fattah's case with Egyptian authorities on Friday.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had also done so on the COP27 sidelines, UN spokeswoman Alessandra Vellucci told reporters.

Abdel Fattah's case has sparked an outcry at COP27.

- 'Unacceptable insult' -

Abdel Fattah has since late last year been serving a five-year sentence for "broadcasting false news", having already spent much of the past decade behind bars.

According to rights groups, Abdel Fattah is among more than 60,000 prisoners of conscience in Egypt since President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi came to power after deposing Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

The UN rights chief noted that the resumption in April 2022 of Egypt's Presidential Pardon Committee "had resulted in numerous individuals being released".

But he called "on the Egyptian authorities to fulfil their human rights obligations and immediately release all those arbitrarily detained, including those in pre-trial detention, as well as those unfairly convicted."

"No one should be detained for exercising their basic human rights or defending those of others."

In a statement received by the UN correspondents' association, Egypt's mission in Geneva slammed Turk's intervention.

"The content of the statement deliberately undermines the independence of the judiciary and the rule of law as an indispensable cornerstone for the protection and promotion of human rights. The characterisation of a judicial decision as 'unfair' is an unacceptable insult," the mission said.

Turk's statement "violates the principles of impartiality and objectivity" and "further erodes both his credibility and that of the institution that he represents", it said.

Egypt urged Turk to "show professionalism" and instead of commenting on cases, he should "focus on the promotion and protection of human rights through cooperation and dialogue".