Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made for the implications of his policy of the decision of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention that British Citizen, Alaa Abd el-Fattah is arbitrarily detained in Egypt.

Since his sentencing in December 2021, FCDO officials have consistently called on the Egyptian Government to grant consular access to Alaa Abd El-Fattah. The FCDO takes all allegations of human rights violations very seriously. In doing so we carefully consider all available information, including any opinions issued by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. The former Foreign Secretary confirmed that the FCDO had called for the release of Alaa Abd el-Fattah to Parliament on 22 June, and that the FCDO were doing everything they could to secure his release. The Foreign Secretary has since raised his case with Foreign Minister Shoukry on 21 September. We continue to support the family of Alaa Abd El-Fattah.