Two German-Egyptian siblings have gone on hunger strike after the arrest of their father in Egypt.
Fagr Eladly, one of the siblings, an outspoken critic of President Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi who lives in Frankfurt, on Friday said they were in Cairo to demand the “immediate release” of their father.
“We are deeply concerned about his health and well-being during this difficult time,” she said.
Eladly said other relatives and friends living in Germany plan to join the hunger strike, which the siblings began on Thursday.
The family, who live in Germany but travel to Egypt occasionally to visit relatives, also appealed to the German government to put pressure on Egypt for their father’s release.
“A German family is currently exposed to the arbitrariness of the Egyptian regime, and it is essential that the German government vehemently stands up for its citizens,” she said.
The 59-year-old father, Alaa Eladly, does not have German citizenship unlike his children.
He was recently detained at the Cairo airport.
The family suspects his arrest was a form of retaliation because Eladly, the daughter, had called al-Sissi a “murderer” during a 2015 press conference in Berlin with former chancellor Angela Merkel.
Eladly’s father is accused of “spreading false news” and being a member of a banned association.
Critics of the government are repeatedly imprisoned in Egypt on such charges, which human rights activists describe as politically motivated.
The Egyptian president, the former commander-in-chief of the military, came to power in 2013 after a coup.
Since then, according to human rights activists, some 60,000 opposition members have been imprisoned in the country, some without trial.
Relatives of critics living abroad have also been detained. (dpa/NAN)