The UK Must Act: Alaa Abd El-Fattah Still Imprisoned 25 Days After Release Date

1 month 4 weeks ago

It’s been 25 days since September 29, the day that should have seen British-Egyptian blogger, coder, and activist Alaa Abd El Fattah walk free. Egyptian authorities refused to release him at the end of his sentence, in contradiction of the country's own Criminal Procedure Code, which requires that time served in pretrial detention count toward a prison sentence. In the days since, Alaa’s family has been able to secure meetings with high-level British officials, including Foreign Secretary David Lammy, but as of yet, the Egyptian government still has not released Alaa.

In early October, Alaa was named the 2024 PEN Writer of Courage by PEN Pinter Prize winner Arundhati Roy, who presented the award in a ceremony where it was received by Egyptian publication Mada Masr editor Lina Attalah on Alaa’s behalf.

Alaa’s mother, Laila Soueif, is now on her third week of hunger strike and says that she won’t stop until Alaa is free or she’s taken to the hospital. In recent weeks, Alaa’s mothers and sisters have met with several members of Parliament in the hopes of placing more pressure on officials. As the BBC reports, his family are “deeply disappointed with how the current government, and the previous one, have handled his case” and believe that the UK has more leverage with Egypt that it is not using.

Alaa deserves to finally return to his family, now in the UK, and to be reunited with his son, Khaled, who is now a teenager. We urge EFF supporters in the UK to write to their MP (external link) to place pressure on the UK’s Labour government to use their power to push for Alaa’s release. 

Jillian C. York

Egypt and Tunisia ‘not interested’ in migrant deals with EU

2 months ago

"Egypt and Tunisia have shown little or no interest in striking deals with Brussels to drive down migrant crossings from North Africa to Europe, according to leaked EU documents.

The papers revealed Brussels has made scant progress in deepening co-operation with the two countries on border control and returns.

(...)

The leaked documents, first reported by the EU Observer website and obtained by Statewatch, a pro-transparency NGO, were prepared by Hungary, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU."

Fulls story here. The document referred to is available here.

Statewatch

[B] 【たんぽぽ舎発】.第7次エネルギー基本計画のここが問題 (下) 原発が二酸化炭素を出さないことなどあり得ない  山崎久隆

2 months ago
基本計画ではカーボンニュートラルという言葉も飛び交うが、化石燃料を燃やすタイミングを殊更問題視するために使っている用語であり、原発が極めて大きな環境汚染源であることを見えなくさせる言葉遣いだ。本気で達成するための議論ではなく、原子力推進体制を再構築することを目的に「あらゆる政策を動員する」ために用いられるのが「脱炭素」だ。
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