(Photo by Ali Omar\File)
The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) launched a campaign on Tuesday titled “Starving for Justice” in support of the rights of hunger striking detainees in Egyptian prisons.
Amid continued denial of fair trials and the absence of humane conditions in Egyptian prisons, tens of political prisoners are staging hunger strikes in order to deliver their message, the organisation said.
The aim of the campaign is to raise awareness of the responsibilities of the state towards the detainees.
Many of the hunger strikers were detained for violating the Protest Law. The EIPR has described the controversial law as a tool “by the state in its relentless crackdown on political dissent”.
EIPR added that in some occasions prison administrations attempt to convince detainees to suspend their hunger strike “either through persuasion or coercion”.
Activist Mohamed Soltan, detained in one of Tora prison’s solitary confinement cells, has been on a hunger strike for over 240 days to protest his detention.
Amnesty International issued a statement on 19 September condemning the act of Egyptian authorities that put Soltan’s life at risk by denying him sustained medical care and placing him in solitary confinement.
Soltan was arrested in August 2013 during the dispersal of the Rabaa Al-Adaweya sit-in.
Hundreds of journalists and activists in Egypt and abroad have embarked on hunger strikes in solidarity with Egyptian detainees.
Alexandrian lawyer and activist Mahienour El-Massry started a hunger strike on Tuesday in solidarity with those detained over the Protest Law. El-Massry was released on Monday, after an Alexandria Court accepted her appeal against a six-month prison sentence.
The number of those on a hunger strike in solidarity with prisoners and detainees of conscience in the country has been increasing, reaching 1,081, according to the “Freedom for the Brave” movement on Tuesday.
