Germany's Scholz demands freedom of Egyptian hunger striker

On Nov 8, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he had raised the issue of the jailed hunger striker Alaa Abd el-Fattah during his visit to the COP27 climate summit in Egypt. "A decision needs to be taken, a release has to be made possible so that it doesn't come to it that the hunger striker dies," Scholz told reporters. Abd el-Fattah, a prominent activist and blogger, was sentenced in December 2021 to five years on charges of spreading false news.