The Crown actor Khalid Abdalla is calling for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to advocate for Egyptian activist Alaa Abdel Fattah’s jail release as he and other world leaders gather for Cop27.
Fattah is serving a 15-year prison sentence for his activism in Egypt, and is currently on a 200-day hunger strike to raise awareness about the political injustice many face.
He is facing the possibility of death in the coming days, before global climate change summit Cop27 in Egypt ends next Friday, Abdalla told ITV’s Good Morning Britain.
Abdalla, who will appear in season five of The Crown as Princess Diana’s love interest, Dodi Fayed, said that his friend’s possible death “is a terrifying prospect”.
“All 120 world leaders are descending on Sharm El-Sheikh right now. If all of them can’t result in Alaa being released from prison, then what hope do we have in the climate?
“That’s what’s on Rishi Sunak’s plate right now… to bring him back, to show what the world could look like, what the world should look like.”
'If all of them can't result in Alaa being released from prison, then what hope have we got of saving the planet'
— Good Morning Britain (@GMB) November 7, 2022
Khalid Abdalla speaks on the campaign to free UK citizen, Alaa Abdel Fattah, who has been in prison for a decade & on hunger strike for over 200 days in Egypt. pic.twitter.com/8ba3RUrcDH
Abdalla said his friend was imprisoned over a Facebook post.
“It’s completely absurd. A Facebook post about the torture of a fellow prisoner,” he said on Monday.
“To put it in context, I consider him to be what James Baldwin was to the Civil Rights Movement - he is to the progressive fight in Egypt.
“[He is] what the Pankhursts are to the fight for women, Alaa and his family are to that progressive fight for democracy, for social justice and a better world.”
When asked why he is advocating for Fattah, Khalid said: “I’m here as a friend, I’m here as someone who believes in a better world. But look at him, he’s been on hunger strike for over 200 days, he is fighting with his body, he is the reason that I am here.
“We need to be doing everything that we can, so that’s what I have to do - regardless of whether I’m in The Crown.”
Abdalla was among protests at Cairo’s Tahrir Square in February 2011, as Egyptians called for an end to President Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule.
“[Fattah] is an icon of those 2011 protests and he’s been in prison for the best part of 10 years on account of that,” he told Good Morning Britain.
Season five of The Crown airs on Netflix on November 9.
Rishi Sunak has told Fattah’s family in a letter that he will raise their plight with the Egyptian president during Cop27 this week, and will update the family after the climate summit is over.
But Mr Fattah’s family say this could be too late for the starving writer, and asked for the Prime Minister to “get proof of life”.
Mr Sunak wrote to his family on Saturday saying he was “totally committed” to resolving the case, which he described as “a priority for the British Government both as a human rights defender and as a British national”.
