(AFP PHOTO / STR)
By Amira El-Fekki
Mohamed Soltan, the imprisoned son of prominent Muslim Brotherhood leader Salah Soltan, was admitted to the intensive care unit of the Qasr El-Aini Hospital on Tuesday night.
His return to hospital follows a deterioration in his condition for refusing to receive medical treatment, according to the Freedom for the Brave, a group calling for the release of political detainees.
Soltan has been previously transferred to intensive care three times.
The group reported that Soltan refused treatment in the prison hospital for 10 days, worsening his health, as his hunger strike enters its 325th day since he commenced it on 25 January.
The deterioration of Soltan’s health in prison continues to be a source of controversy and support for local and global human rights’ advocates and organisation. This is particularly as Soltan has received American media attention, as he holds dual US and Egyptian citizenship. He has also repeatedly called for the US authorities to intervene to end his detention.
A petition launched on the international Change.org website has so far collected 8,284 signatures. It needs another 1,716 to be able to pass the petition demanding to free Soltan to the US President, Senate, State Department, House of Representatives and Embassy in Cairo.
Soltan had addressed President Barack Obama on several occasions from inside his detention, describing the inhumane conditions of his detention. Activists have also reported several stories from Soltan on the situation in jail.
In his most recent account, as shared by activists on social media networks and by the Freedom for the Brave group, Soltan told the story of how prison forces stormed their cells. The forces destroying and stealing their personal belongings and beating the prisoners, according to Soltan.
Soltan is accused of participating in an operation room aiming at spreading violence during the Muslim Brotherhood sit-in at Rabaa Al-Adaweya in August 2013. Earlier in November, the judge examining the case involving Soltan, Judge Nagy Shehata, refused to grant Soltan a release on health grounds. The refusal came despite being addressed by human rights organisations, which warned of possible death due to repeated lung strokes.
