COP27: UK PM Rishi Sunak 'runs away' from reporter asking him about Alaa Abdel Fattah

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak ignored and walked swiftly away from a reporter in Egypt asking him about jailed British-Egyptian dissident Alaa Abdel Fattah, a video shared on social media has shown. 

Matthew Cassel from Vice asked Sunak - who is in Sharm El-Sheikh for COP27 - whether the UK government has demanded the release of Abdel Fattah, who is on a hunger and water strike, which Sunak pointedly ignored. 

One of Sunak's aides prevented the reporter from getting too close to the PM and tells him to access a clip from the international press pool. 

We are very concerned to see UK Prime Minister @RishiSunak fleeing from a reporter who repeatedly asks about the status of Alaa Abd el-Fattah and his hunger strike. #SaveAlaa #FreeAlaa #COP27 https://t.co/5eqpN9RKvq

— Naomi Klein "#COP27 Egypt Unsilenced" (@NaomiAKlein) November 7, 2022

Rishi Sunak, who had originally intended to miss the climate conference, is expected to meet with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi again on Tuesday to raise the issue of Alaa Abdel Fattah. 

He has personally pledged to "stress to President Sisi the importance that we attach to the swift resolution of Alaa's case".

Abdel Fattah entered his third day of a water strike following over 200 days of consuming just 100 calories a day, to protest his continued detention.

Abdel Fattah, a figurehead of the Egyptian 2011 uprising against then-president Hosni Mubarak, has been imprisoned by the Sisi government on and off for the past decade.

Last year, he was sentenced to prison on terrorism charges to five years in jail after posting about torture on social media. 

The 40-year-old became a British citizen last year, but British officials have been prevented from visiting him in jail.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi has presided over almost a decade-long crackdown against dissidents and government critics, detaining tens of thousands of people including journalists and human rights activists.