London, United Kingdom – Strictly regulated healthcare professionals have issued a warning to six remand prisoners who are on a hunger strike and are immediately at risk of dying.
More than 800 doctors, nurses, therapists, and carers wrote to Justice Secretary David Lammy on Thursday, pleading that “without resolution, there is the real and increasingly likely chance that young British citizens will die in prison, having never even been convicted of an offence.”
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Qesser Zuhrah, Amu Gib, Heba Muraisi, Teuta Hoxha, and Kamran Ahmed are the prisoners who are between the ages of 20 and 31. Due to his diabetes, Lewie Chiaramello is on a partial strike, refusing to eat every other day.
The hunger strikers are simply dying, said James Smith, an emergency physician and lecturer at a press conference in London on Thursday, speaking with some of the victims’ families, politicians, their lawyers, and activists.
They are all in a critical stage right now.
The group is being held in five prisons for allegedly breaking into the British subsidiary of the Israeli defense firm Elbit Systems in Bristol and an RAF base in Oxfordshire. They deny the charges brought against them, including violent disorder and burglary.
The UK government is implicated in Israeli war crimes, according to Palestine Action, which was declared a terrorist organization in July and associated with organizations like ISIL (ISIS).
The pro-Palestine hunger strikers demand the de-proscription of Palestine Action, immediate bail, and the right to a fair trial. Additionally, they demand the closure of all Elbit websites.
For almost seven weeks, Zuhrah and Gib have refused to eat.
According to Smith, who has spoken with the hunger strikers, “the body has exhausted fat stores and organ tissue in order to generate enough energy to maintain bodily functions after three weeks.”
He claimed that starvation for a long time could lead to “suddenly cause death” caused by heart muscle breakdown, kidney filtration issues, muscle weakness that could lead to breathing problems, and heart failures.
The healthcare professionals stated in their letter that 24-hour medical coverage, daily blood tests, and twice-daily assessments were required.
“The hunger strikers require care that is not available in the prison if any of the above requirements are not met.” In such circumstances, they should be handled in a hospital setting, particularly if there are any complications.
Lammy has been the subject of a lot of pressure, and he has refused to meet with the activists’ attorneys to discuss their concerns about their welfare.
Low blood pressure, headaches, chest tightness, and shortness of breath are all symptoms of Teuta Hoxha’s strike, which is occurring on its 40th day.
Rahma, Teuta’s 17-year-old sister, claimed Teuta feels “weak” and nauseous and is about to pass away.
She urged Lammy to meet with the attorneys right away to save my sister’s life.
This time period is “very deadly.”
The prisoners do not call their loved ones when they are in a hospital, as they do when they are in jail.
Hoxha claimed that her sister recently called herself out of the hospital after receiving medical advice to update her family about her condition. Zuhrah’s kin, Ella Mousdale, claimed she had done the same.
Zuhrah, 20, has experienced “nothing but physical activity,” with persistent high pulses of 100 bpm, exhaustion, and chest pains. She has claimed to regularly collapse while incarcerated.
She moves very slowly. She is hunched over. She can’t hug me back any longer because she has just had body pains all over and is extremely weak, according to Mousdale, who visited her on Sunday.
She struggles to remain awake, she said. She finds it challenging to talk for a long time.
Zuhrah stopped talking to the family on Wednesday, leading them to believe she had been taken to a hospital. According to Mousdale, the family no longer knew if she was still alive.
She said, “This is a very deadly time.”
Medical personnel and protesters gathered outside the HMP Bronzefield in Surrey, where Zuhrah is being detained on suspicion of a crime involving the Bristol incident.
On Wednesday, the left-wing MP Zarah Sultana demanded that Zuhrah be taken to a hospital by prison guards. According to footage shared on social media, an ambulance arrived several hours later, but it was not immediately clear whether Zuhrah had been taken to a hospital.
Zuhrah is safe and is continuing her hunger strike, Sultana confirmed in a post on X on Thursday night.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice confirmed to Al Jazeera that a prison staff member had been injured in a dispute between protesters and the police, but they could not ascertain the nature or extent of their harm.
The prison service has assured ministers that “every case of prisoner food refusal is being managed in accordance with the relevant policy, and with appropriate medical assessment and support – consistent with prisoner rights,” the spokesperson said, citing security risks, and citing security risks.
Prisoners who refuse to eat receive “regular medical evaluation and support from clinicians, as well as being offered mental health support,” according to a spokesperson for Sodexo, the organization that runs HMP Bronzefield.
Ahmed’s sister Shahmina Alam reported that his ketone levels are “steeply rising” once more and that he has been refusing to eat for 39 days. He now weighs 61.5kg , (135.5 pounds), having entered prison at 74kg (163 pounds).
She said, “I request Lammy to have this meeting.” What are they waiting for when Allah’s heart slows down, for it to stop?
More than 50 MPs have joined Jeremy Corbyn, the left-wing independent politician, in urging Lammy to meet the lawyers of the hunger strikers, in addition to the petition signed by more than 20 000 people by the campaign group Avaaz.
Labour MP John McDonnell told Al Jazeera, “There is a real anxiety about what the hell is happening right now.” Why don’t we intervene as a government? Why don’t we resolve this issue? There is growing concern that the current circumstance is extremely risky.
The hunger strikers’ attorneys’ attorneys, Daniel Lemberger Cooper, described their attempts to collaborate with the government as an effort to stop the prisoners’ deaths rather than discuss criminal proceedings, but Lammy has not yet responded to the request for a meeting “for reasons he has not explained and which are not clear to us.”
Some defendants will have already served more than two years in prison.
On Wednesday, Mansroor Adayfi, a former Guantanamo detainee who was imprisoned for more than 14 years without charge, joined the hunger strike in show of support.
“Hunger strikes are only a last resort, not a choice,” he said. Adayfi remarked that the British government wants these men and women to quietly vanish.
