Egypt: UN demands regarding prisoners ‘unacceptable insult’

Egyptian authorities have objected to a UN request to immediately release political activist Alaa Abdelfattah and prisoners of conscience, considering this an “unacceptable insult.”

Egypt’s mission to the UN in Geneva said in a statement on Tuesday: “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.” It added that describing a judicial ruling as “unjust” is “an unacceptable insult.”

The Egyptian mission added that the statement by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, “violates the principles of impartiality and objectivity and further erodes both his credibility and that of the institution that he represents.”

Earlier on Tuesday, Turk urged the Egyptian government to immediately release activist and blogger Abdelfattah and provide him with the necessary medical treatment, after he escalated his hunger strike since the start of the UN climate summit in Sharm El-Sheikh, and is now refusing water.

Turk said: “Abdelfattah is in great danger. His dry hunger strike puts his life at acute risk.”

“My Office and other UN Human Rights Mechanisms have raised Abdelfattah’s case and the cases of other individuals arbitrarily deprived of their liberty and incarcerated after unfair trials on multiple occasions,” the High Commissioner said.

READ: Cop27 becomes ‘Free Alaa Summit’ as pressure builds to release British hunger striker

Turk called on the Egyptian authorities to “fulfil their human rights obligations and immediately release all persons who have been arbitrarily detained, including those in pre-trial detention, as well as individuals who have been unfairly convicted.”

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

There have been several calls since the COP27 climate summit was launched in Sharm El-Sheikh to release Alaa Abdelfattah, who announced last week that he was going on an open hunger strike, before he escalated his position on Sunday by announcing that he would stop drinking water.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the summit in Egypt is an opportunity to raise the issue of Abdelfattah, who is a British-Egyptian citizen.

Abdelfattah was sentenced in December 2021 to five years on charges of spreading false news and has been on a hunger strike against his detention and prison conditions since 2 April.