Palestine Action activist on hunger strike ‘having difficulty breathing’ at HMP New Hall
A Palestine Action activist who has been on hunger strike for 66 days while in a West Yorkshire prison awaiting trial is having difficulty breathing, her next of kin has said.
Heba Muraisi, 31, has become very weak and has been having muscle spasms, campaign group Prisoners for Palestine said.
Her next of kin Francesca Nadin told the Press Association that Muraisi has been having difficulty breathing and in thinking clearly.
“It is really concerning,” she said. “But mentally she is still strong and able to laugh and joke.
“We just don’t know when that deterioration will come.”
Muraisi is one of two remaining hunger strikers who are facing charges related to alleged break-ins on behalf of Palestine Action before the group was banned under terrorism legislation – charges which they deny and have called to be dropped.
Ms Nadin said of Muraisi, who is being held at HMP New Hall, in Wakefield: “It has been 66 days – a very, very long time.
“It is the same amount of time that Bobby Sands (IRA hunger striker) died after.”
Meanwhile Kamran Ahmed, 28, who has been on hunger strike for 59 days, was taken to hospital at 1am on Wednesday, Prisoners for Palestine said.
Ahmed, who is being held on remand at HMP Pentonville, has been taken to hospital six times since he began his hunger strike, the group said.
Prisoners for Palestine has called for ministers to meet with representatives of the hunger strikers as they continue their campaign, with lawyers for Ahmed and Muraisi writing to Justice Secretary David Lammy on Wednesday.
“We have been advised by Dr James Smith, an emergency physician, that our clients who remain on strike are now well into the critical phase,” said a letter shared by Prisoners for Palestine from Imran Khan and Partners to Mr Lammy.
“He has warned that their condition is likely to decline very quickly and irreversibly. We therefore reiterate our request to meet with you, or a senior government official, with whom we can discuss their demands and provide a means of ending what will, in all likelihood, be a loss of life or lives.”
The Ministry of Justice has been contacted for comment.