Jailed Egyptian hunger striker gets medical intervention

A jailed Egyptian pro-democracy campaigner, whose family says is on a total hunger strike, has been given "medical intervention," his sister said on Thursday.
Alaa Abdel-Fattah, a key figure in Egypt's 2011 uprising which toppled long-time ruler Hosny Mubarak, began a partial hunger strike in April and stopped drinking water as of Sunday, to coincide with the start of a major UN climate conference in Egypt, according to his family.
Abdel-Fattah, now 40, was sentenced in December to five years in prison on charges of spreading fake news, an accusation that his family dismisses as politically motivated.
There have been increasing international calls in the past few days for Egyptian authorities to free Abdel-Fattah, who is also a British citizen, amid warnings that his life is at risk.
On Thursday, his sister Mona tweeted that the family had been informed by prison officers that "medical intervention" had been ordered for Abdel-Fattah, with judicial authorities' knowledge.
In a statement, his family demanded information about this medical intervention and asked that he be transferred to a hospital "where lawyers and family can reach him."
"The priority now is to see Alaa to know his true health status, what kind of medical intervention they carried out and why, how badly did he deteriorate?" tweeted his sister.
She said his lawyer's request to visit him had been approved and that the lawyer was on his way to the prison outside Cairo where Abdel-Fattah is being kept.
But later on Thursday, Abdel-Fattah's lawyer, Khaled Ali, said the Interior Ministry, which is in charge of prisons in Egypt, refused to allow him to visit the activist.
"They claimed the permit was dated November 9, not today [Thursday]," Ali, a well-known rights lawyer, added on Twitter.
In response, Mona called the access denial a "complete disregard to law."
So far, there has been no comment from Egyptian authorities.
Concerns about Abdel-Fatah's health has prompted a high-profile international campaign for his release.
While attending the COP27 climate talks in Egypt earlier this week, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz appealed to Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi for the release of the imprisoned activist.
Similar calls were made by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and French President Emmanuel Macron.
There has been international criticism of Egypt's rights record under al-Sissi in recent years.
Al-Sissi took over in 2014 a year after the army, then led by him, deposed Islamist president Mohammed Morsi following mass protests against Morsi's divisive rule.
Thousands of activists have since been rounded up.