Activist Abd el-Fattah was near death when he broke hunger strike- family

(Retops with family statement) CAIRO, Egypt, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah was close to death when he broke his hunger strike, and needed to be revived after collapsing in a prison in Egypt, his family said on Thursday.

(Retops with family statement) CAIRO, Egypt, Nov 17 (Reuters) -

Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah was close to death when he broke his hunger strike, and needed to be revived after collapsing in a prison in Egypt, his family said on Thursday. Abd el-Fattah had also been tied down in his cell after refusing to submit to a medical examination and hitting his head against a wall, the family said in a statement after visiting him in prison for the first time in weeks.

Abd el-Fattah had been on full or partial hunger strike against his detention and prison conditions since April 2, then escalated his protest by ceasing to drink water on Nov. 6, the opening day of the COP27 climate talks. U.S. President Joe Biden and European leaders raised his case with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi during the talks in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

Abd el-Fattah said in a letter to his family earlier this week that he had ended his strike, but before Thursday's visit, the family had not seen him since mid-October. After speaking with him from behind a glass partition after the meeting at Wadi al-Natrun jail northwest of Cairo, they said his health had deteriorated sharply.

In a statement, the family said he had collapsed in the shower on Nov. 11 before falling unconscious and then being revived. "He talked about all of this as a near-death experience. This is how the hunger strike was broken," the statement said.

An interior ministry spokesman could not be reached for comment. An activist and blogger who rose to prominence in the 2011 Arab Spring uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak, Abd el-Fattah became a symbol for the tens of thousands of Egyptians - from liberals to Islamists - who were swept up in later crackdowns.