Australian journalist Peter Greste on hunger strike for political prisoner who saved his life

ABC NEWS (Australia)

It is part of a campaign to release Egypt’s most prominent political prisoner Alaa Abd El-Fattah who’s jail term has been extended. Greste befriended Alaa when was serving out his own sentence in Cairo in 2013.

Transcript

00:00Layla Suif has been on a hunger strike and holding daily vigils outside No. 10 Downing

00:08Street for 118 days.

00:11This week, Australian journalist Peter Grester joined her.

00:14Hello.

00:15It's a pleasure to meet you.

00:19Layla's son, Alar Abdel Fattah, an Egyptian-British national, is Egypt's most prominent political

00:25prisoner.

00:26Grester was jailed after the government claimed he spread false news and was due for release

00:30last September, but authorities in Cairo refused to let him out.

00:35I believe that I need to do what I can to help Alar get out of prison.

00:39I quite literally owe him my life.

00:41Grester was jailed in Cairo in 2013 on false news and terror charges, which prompted global

00:47outrage.

00:48Alar was in the next cell.

00:50I was terrified of what was going on.

00:53And through the bars of my door, I heard this voice calling my name in a fairly heavily

01:00accented English, but saying to me, it's OK, you're with friends here and it's OK, we'll

01:06look after you.

01:08And that was hugely important.

01:10I can't begin to tell you what that meant to me at that time.

01:13Because Alar's half British, his mother's lobbying the UK government to get him out

01:18of jail.

01:19The British government assures me that this is a high priority and that they're pushing

01:24it as hard as they can, but so far there has been absolutely nothing conclusive.

01:30There's a whole host of tools, both diplomatic and economic, that the British government

01:35does have that they could be using.

01:37Peter Grester is also hoping governments beyond Britain, including Australia, will take notice

01:42and put pressure on Egypt to release Alar.

01:45Grester's aiming to continue his hunger strike for 21 days, but hopes there's a breakthrough

01:51for his friend much earlier.

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