(Reuters) – German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Tuesday said he had raised the issue of the jailed hunger striker Alaa Abd el-Fattah during his visit to the COP27 climate summit in Egypt.
“A decision needs to be taken, a release has to be made possible, so that it doesn’t come to it that the hunger striker dies,” Scholz told reporters.
Abd el-Fattah, a prominent activist and blogger, was sentenced in December 2021 to five years on charges of spreading false news and has been on a hunger strike for 220 days against his detention and prison conditions.
Abd el-Fattah’s detention has become a prominent issue at the COP27 summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, which his sister is attending to campaign for his release.
Asked about the case, Egyptian Foreign Minister and COP27 President Sameh Shoukry told CNBC that prison authorities would provide Abd el-Fattah with healthcare.
(Reporting by Matthias Williams and Miranda Murray, editing by Rachel More)
