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Wednesday 27 August 2014 - 12:30

Is there a solution for Egypt’s prisoners of conscience?

Story Code : 406897
Is there a solution for Egypt’s prisoners of conscience?
Yet, Egypt has continuously worked to imprison, abuse and oppress those who dare express opinions which diverge from those of the state.

Three years after the deposition of former President Husne Mubarak Egypt has never witnessed such a crackdown against political and rights activists. Media workers have too stood in the line of fire as the military junta has imposed a gag on news outlets, threatening anyone with severe repercussions should they dare step out of the state-approved media narrative.

Keen to denounce such coercion and infringement on their freedom, prisoners of conscience have staged a lengthy hunger strike.

Prominent Egyptian activist imprisoned for three months has joined a growing number of prisoners in an ongoing hunger strike to protest the government’s crackdown on dissent, a Cairo-based rights group and her lawyer said Monday.

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information said at least a dozen protesters and activists behind bars have started a hunger strike in the past week, including prominent blogger and activist Alaa Abdel-Fattah. Abdel-Fattah is awaiting a retrial after he won an appeal of his 15-year prison sentence for participating in a protest last year.

The group said Mahienour al-Masry, an activist sentenced for protesting, started a hunger strike Sunday. She was sentenced in May to two years, though her sentence was reduced to six months and a $7,000 fine.

The group said the hunger strikes are in reaction to “unfair trials” and “noticeably prolonged detentions” without trial in cases involving freedom of expression.

Security officials say at least 20,000 people have been detained since the government crackdown began last year. Most of the detained are Islamist supporters of Egypt’s ousted President Mohammad Morsi. Late last year, the Egyptian government passed a controversial protest law that bans demonstrations without prior police approval and toughens the penalties on violators.

Also joining the strike Sunday was a group of 11 Morsi supporters who have held without charges for months for protesting, the group said. Two other Morsi supporters have been on hunger strike for months, including U.S.-Egyptian citizen Mohammad Soltan, whose health has been failing after over 200 days on strike.

Another, Ibrahim al-Yamani, has been on hunger strike for over 120 days after his one-year detention.

A Facebook page called “We are up to here!” that tracks the number of prisoners on hunger strikes posted reports filed to prosecutors showing two prisoners in the southern province of Fayoum also joined the hunger strike Sunday because of their continued detention without charges.

A protest took place Monday in solidarity with striking prisoners.
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