Alaa - blog from the prison

Our colleague, Alaa Abdel El Fatah, is spending his fourth night in an

Our colleague, Alaa Abdel El Fatah, is spending his fourth night in an Egyptian prison for having demonstrated peacefully along with other activists against attempts to reduce the independence of the judiciary in Egypt. With help of his wife Manal he published a blog post he had written in the prison after his arrest. The text was published on their blog Manal and Alaa’s bit bucket

Today it hit me, I am really in prison. I’m not sure how I feel. I thought I was OK but I took forever to wake up. The way fellow prisoners look at me tells me I do not feel well but I can’t really feel it.

I’d say prison is not like I expected, but I had no expectations. No images, not even fears, nothing. Guess it will take time. I expect to spend no less than a month here. I’m sure that’s enough time to see all the ugly sides of prison, to be genuinely depressed.

I’m in a good cell I suppose. Only one of us with me, Karim Reda, a young Ghad member with no experience. I would have preferred to be surrounded by friends, or to be with someone with experience like Kamal Khalil who would inspire confidence in me and make sense of everything, but I should not complain.

Read the whole Alaa’s text

Manal and Alaa’s bit bucket – free speech from the bletches

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