The US Senate’s longest serving member has rebuked Egyptian authorities for continuing to detain activist and blogger Alaa Abdel-Fattah, calling his treatment “reminiscent of the Middle Ages”. Democrat senator for Vermont Patrick Leahy told Congress that while he welcomed the release of dozens of political prisoners last month, “thousands of other opposition figures remain behind bars for acts of free speech and association that are not crimes under international law.” “It is hard to take seriously Egypt’s new ‘human rights strategy’…. A serious human rights strategy would include repealing …