Fears for health of Alaa Abd el-Fattah and mother as hunger strikes take toll

The family of the imprisoned British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah say they fear for his health along with that of his mother, Laila Soueif, as both continued their hunger strikes to demand his freedom. Relatives of Soueif said they were worried she was “dying in slow motion” after eight months on full or partial hunger strike. He began a hunger strike on the day his mother was admitted to St Thomas’ hospital in London in February, almost 150 days into her own hunger strike, where she received a glucose drip intended to save her life. Soueif started a hunger strike last September, after Fattah reached five years in prison – the length of his sentence – in the Wadi el-Natrun desert prison. Soueif’s nephew Omar Robert Hamilton said his aunt’s health was failing as she attempted to survive on a partial hunger strike.