COP 27: Who is Alaa Abd El Fattah and why is he in an Egyptian prison?

Alaa Abd El-Fattah is a British Egyptian man being detained in Egypt and is the country’s most prominent political prisoner.

He is being held at the notorious Tora Maximum Security Two prison in Cairo where he has been on hunger strike since April. And now, with COP27 underway, he is on a water strike. His family has said time is running out to save his life and they are urging the UK government to save his life.

But what did Alaa do?

The 40-year-old activist and blogger was an important figure in the pro-democracy uprising that led to the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak in 2011. And, under the authoritarian rule of President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, who came to power in 2014, he has spent most of the time in prison or police detention.

His latest five-year sentence was for allegedly "broadcasting false news". The British government and his family are working on his release, but so far, we don’t know if Egypt will let that happen.