The family of jailed British-Egyptian pro-democracy activist Alaa Abdel Fattah, who has been on hunger strike, say they have been informed he has “undergone a medical intervention”.
They said officials at Egypt’s Wadi al-Natroun prison had told his mother, Laila Soueif, that it took place “with the knowledge of a judicial authority”.
Later, his lawyer said his request to visit the prison had been granted.
Abdel Fattah, 40, escalated his hunger strike on Sunday by refusing water.
He began a partial strike seven months ago, consuming a maximum of 100 calories a day, in a bid to pressure Egyptian authorities to allow British diplomats to visit him.
With authorities continuing to deny him consular access and refusing to even acknowledge his British citizenship, he told his family in a letter that he would only drink water until the COP27 climate conference opened in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Sunday, and then stop even that.
On Wednesday, after three days with no news, his family demanded that authorities prove he was still alive and expressed concern that they might be force-feeding him or be putting him on intravenous drips against his will.
They were reacting to comments by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who told his French counterpart that Egypt was “committed to ensuring that [the] health of Alaa Abdel Fattah is preserved”, and Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, who stressed that “necessary healthcare” was provided to inmates.
“Wadi al-Natron prison officials today refused to allow Laila Soueif to wait at the prison gates. They refused to take receipt of a letter she had written to the prison governor and one to Alaa,” Abdel Fattah’s family said in a statement on Thursday morning.
“They informed her that Alaa had ‘undergone a medical intervention with the knowledge of a judicial authority’.”
“We are demanding information on the substance of the ‘medical intervention’ and demanding that with the utmost urgency he is moved to hospital where lawyers and family can reach him,” the statement added.
Abdel Fattah’s sister, Mona Seif, tweeted: “The priority now is to see [Alaa] to know his true health status, what kind of medical intervention they carried out and why, how badly did he deteriorate?
“Is he conscious and consenting? And to make sure he is not in the care of the doctors who forged his medical report before!”
Later, she wrote that Abdel Fattah’s lawyer, Khalid Ali, was on his way to the prison after being informed that his request for a visit had been granted by the prosecutor general.
All previous requests from Mr Ali had either been “denied or illegally ignored”, human rights activist Hossam Bahgat said.
There was no immediate comment from the Egyptian or British governments.
On Wednesday, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told the House of Commons that he had raised Abdel Fattah’s case with President Sisi at COP27 and that his “deep concern” grew “more urgent by the day”.
“We will continue to press the Egyptian government to resolve the situation,” he said. “We want to see Alaa freed and reunited with his family as soon as possible.”
UN human rights chief Volker Türk warned on Tuesday that Abdel Fattah’s life was “at acute risk” and described him as one of a number of people in Egypt who had been “arbitrarily deprived of their liberty and incarcerated after unfair trials on multiple occasions”.
Abdel Fattah first rose to prominence during the 2011 uprising that forced long-time President Hosni Mubarak to resign.
Since Mr Sisi came to power in 2014 after leading the military’s overthrow of Mubarak’s democratically elected successor, he has spent most of the time in prison or police detention.
Last December, he was convicted of the charge of “spreading false news” in relation to his social media posts – a charge human rights groups condemned as spurious – and sentenced to five years in prison.
