(AFP PHOTO / HO/ AL-JAZEERA )
Misr Al-Qawia issued a statement on Sunday announcing its support for hunger strikes by two prominent activists.
Aida Saif Al-Dawla, human rights activist and founding member of Al Nadeem Centre, and Laila Swaif, mother of activist Alaa Abdel Fattah, started a hunger strike on 25 May in support of the detained, Abdullah Elshamy and Mohamed Soltan. Both detainees have been on full hunger strike for over 125 days.
The Hisham Mubarak Law Centre notified the prosecutor general of the solidarity strike by the two prominent activists on 26 May.
The party’s statement called on authorities for the immediate release of Elshamy and Soltan in light of their deteriorating health.
The statement also questioned the role of the National Council for Human Rights (NCHR), which it says has “ignored many violations, and even justified crimes committed by the current regime.”
Saif Al-Dawla said that the NCHR had acquired a permit from the prosecution on 25 May to visit Elshamy and Soltan. They have yet to receive a permit from the Ministry of Interior.
Activists have organised protests with both families of the detained at the Press Syndicate on Sunday evening and Monday at noon.
Elshamy, an Al-Jazeera journalist arrested during the violent 15 August dispersal of a sit-in supporting former president Mohamed Morsi in Rabaa Al-Adaweya Square, has been detained for nine months without charge.
Soltan, an Egyptian-American activist, has been detained since August 2013 for participating in the same sit-in.
