(AFP PHOTO / STR)
The Cairo Court has postponed hunger striker Mohamed Soltan’s trial, commonly known as the Rabaa Operations trial, to 11 October, according to Soltan’s family.
Soltan, detained in one of Torah Prison’s solitary confinement cells, has been on a hunger strike for over 240 days to protest his detention.
His is the longest current hunger strike in Egypt.
“The judge started the hearing with this ridiculous decision,” his family’s Facebook page, Free Soltan, said. Soltan’s lawyers demanded the decision be reconsidered, but the court has upheld its verdict.
On 22 September he was found unconscious and “bleeding profusely from his mouth,” his family said.
In an examination administered by a prison physician, Soltan had “very obvious blue spots under his skin all over his body,” a statement on the page said. His blood pressure was 70/30 as opposed to the normal 119/79, while his glucose level registered 45, as opposed to the normal 70.
“He was unfocused and unable to speak clearly,” the statement added.
Soltan was arrested on 26 August 2013, after security forces raided his home in search for his father and prominent Islamist figure Salah Soltan.
In a visit with his mother, a cancer-patient, Soltan said: “She shouldn’t worry about him and that he would continue his hunger strike until release or death.”
Egyptian authorities are putting the life of the jailed activist at risk, Amnesty International said in a statement last week.
There are currently around 90 hunger strikers in Egyptian jails.
Hundreds of journalists and activists in Egypt and abroad have also been going on hunger strikes in solidarity with Egyptian detainees.
