Overview

• Laila Soueif was admitted to St Thomas’s Hospital in London with dangerously low blood sugar after 242 days without food.
• She has lost 42% of her body weight, weighing just 49kg, and continues to reject medical interventions that would provide calories.
• Her son, Alaa Abd El-Fattah, remains detained in Egypt despite his five-year sentence expiring in September 2024 and has been on a 90-day hunger strike.
• UN investigators have declared his imprisonment a breach of international law and Sir Keir Starmer vowed to “do everything I can” to secure his freedom.
• Human rights groups warn Soueif’s deteriorating condition heightens urgency for UK diplomatic engagement with Egypt.