Welcome to Hard Talk from the BBC World Service with me, Stephen Sacker. In this interview recorded on the 17th of February,

I'm joined by two guests, a mother and daughter, united by one all-consuming ambition to somehow win the release of a son,

a brother, imprisoned for his dissenting political views in Egypt.

Allah Abdufata is that prisoner.

He's a civil society campaigner and pro-democracy activist,

who was an enthusiastic participant in the uprising which toppled President Mubarak back in

2011.

Three years later, General Abdul Fattah Al-Sisi seized power and

Allah Abdufata was imprisoned for organizing an illegal protest. He was released from prison in

2019, only to be re-arrested six months later for allegedly spreading fake news. In late

2021, he was sentenced to five years in prison.

The authorities refused to count the two years of detention that he'd endured before the

conclusion of his trial. Now, his mother, Leila, is in the fifth month of a hunger strike

in a desperate bid to win his freedom. Doctors believe her

condition will soon be life-threatening. She's joined in her campaign and in this interview by her

daughter Sana, herself three times imprisoned by the Egyptian government for her pro-democracy

activism. Their base is now Britain. Allah himself is a dual British and

Egyptian citizen. But is there sufficient will in Britain and the West to confront Egypt over this case

and Egypt's wider repression of political dissent? Well, Leila Swaf and Sana Saif, join me now. Welcome both of you to

hard talk. Thank you for our bigness. Oh, it is a pleasure to have you. Layla, I am going to start with

you. You are in the fifth month of a hunger strike, a hunger strike that is aimed to put pressure

to win the release of your son currently

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