Two days ago, Laila Soueif, mother of Alaa Abd el-Fattah, shared a Facebook post claiming that the hostages “were not subjected to systematic torture”.
My cousin Tsachi was taken hostage alive after watching his firstborn daughter murdered in front of him. In captivity he was denied medical care, denied visits from the Red Cross, starved, tortured, and ultimately murdered. His body was returned to us so mutilated that forensics had trouble identifying him.
My MP
@sianberry never once contacted my family when Tsachi’s remains were finally returned earlier this year. No condolence. No acknowledgement. Just silence.
Yet she is content to stand smiling beside the mother of an extremist who now shares posts denying the torture and mistreatment of the hostages – lies contradicted by the detailed, harrowing testimony of survivors who lived through those abuses and the forensic evidence of those who were murdered.
Soueif’s son called for the killing of Zionists. He called for the expulsion of Jews from Israel. He praised Yahya Sinwar and other terrorists released in the Gilad Shalit deal as “heroes.”
As her constituent, and as someone whose family has paid in blood, the contrast is devastating – silence for the murdered, smiles for those who excuse their tormentors.
Laila Soueif is impossibly brave. She now talks of dying without ever seeing her son again.
Alaa Abd el-Fattah’s detention breaks the Vienna Convention, and our Govt must act decisively.
Change travel advice for Egypt, and apply to the International Court of Justice.