Egypt hunger strikes gain momentum

As Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi heads to New York next week for the UN General Assembly, he leaves behind a country with a growing movement of hunger strikers calling for the release of detainees jailed under a controversial Protest Law.
Several political parties and journalists began a symbolic nationwide hunger strike on Saturday to demand the release of detainees held for violating a law enacted last year that has been criticised by both domestic and international human rights groups, as well as prominent political figures, as curtailing peoples’ right to protest.
Laila Soueif, an assistant professor of mathematics at Cairo University, whose two children, Sanaa and Alaa, are in jail for demonstrating against the law, has been on hunger strike with her only child that remains out of jail, Mona Seif, since September 4.

“I’m on a hunger strike until my children are released, and all those in their two cases are released with them,” she said. “The circle of people joining our hunger strike increases every day. We haven’t reached the stage yet to achieve what is needed, but as long as more people keep joining our protest then this is a success.”
The nationwide strike coincided with the court session of Soueif’s daughter, Sanaa, a human rights defender, and 22 other detainees. They were jailed on June 21 after they denounced the law in front of the Ettehadiya presidential palace in Cairo. Their case has been adjourned until October 21, with all the detainees – which include prominent human rights activists, lawyers and journalists – remaining in jail.
Sanaa’s brother, prominent blogger Alaa Abdel Fattah, is also in jail in a separate case. In June, Alaa and 24 others were sentenced to 15 years in prison for participating in a protest outside the Shura Council, Egypt’s consultative assembly, last year.
His retrial, along with the other Shura Council detainees, resumed on September 10. During the hearing, the prosecution showed a home video of Alaa’s wife belly dancing as evidence against him, according to the Associated Press news agency.
Taher Abul-Nasr, the lead defence lawyer, told the court the video was taken from a computer seized from the couple’s home without a search warrant, and called the material irrelevant and defamatory. None of the video evidence presented showed Abdel Fattah or any other defendants in the case. The retrial is set to resume on September 15