Egyptian-American hunger striker's life at risk in Cairo prison

CAIRO — The life of a jailed Egyptian-American activist is at risk after months on hunger strike in a Cairo prison, human rights organizations and his family say.

After more than 230 days without food, his family says that 26-year-old dual citizen Mohamed Soltan has lost consciousness in his prison cell at least three times. One day last month, he was found unconscious and bleeding from the mouth, relatives say.

Soltan and other detainees had been scheduled to appear in court last Tuesday. According to his family, he was transported to the courthouse in Cairo's Tora Prison in an ambulance, but did not actually enter the courtroom. The judge postponed the hearing until 11 October. Citing a decision by the judge, police stationed at the courtroom barred foreign journalists from entering. 

“We’re as confused as everyone else as to why he’s so important to them [the Egyptian state] and how the whole country could just let someone’s medical condition in their care worsen so much, and do seemingly absolutely nothing about it,” said his sister, Hanaa Soltan, who lives in the Washington, D.C. area.

Soltan, a graduate of Ohio State University, was arrested in August 2013 after protesting the Egyptian military’s removal of elected Islamist president Mohamed Morsi. He declared a hunger strike in late January in protest of his ongoing detention after prosecutors failed to present evidence of the charges against him. He and 50 others are accused of running an “operations room” to support the massive pro-Morsi sit-in in Cairo's Rabaa Al-Adawyia Square.

Soltan and his family have criticised the US government for failing to apply sufficient pressure to help resolve Soltan’s case. “The American government has abandoned me,” he wrote in a letter from the prison hospital in April.

The imprisonment of a US citizen underscores a stark reality of US-Egypt relations. Though his family hoped that his citizenship could help protect him, Soltan’s experience has been consistent with that of other political prisoners in Egypt. In letters from from prison, Soltan reported that guards beat him and other detainees. In spite of the deterioration in his health, he has not received sustained medical attention. His case may be more visible than others, but his treatment is no different.

Over the last several months, the US has moved to restore robust ties with Cairo after a brief period of tension following Morsi’s removal. In April, the US announced it would deliver 10 Apache helicopters whose shipment had been suspended following the military takeover.

The Egyptian military's immediate need for the attack helicopters is in its campaign against insurgents in the Sinai Peninsula, but the the US is also seeking Egypt's cooperation in its offensive against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria. Egypt's new president, former military chief Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, who led the military ouster of Morsi, spoke at the UN General Assembly in New York last week and discussed security issues with US President Barack Obama in a meeting on the sidelines of the summit. Ahead of his speech, Sisi was interviewed by Charlie Rose for the CBS This Morning programme who asked whether the Egyptian air force would support the US-led coalition against the Islamic State.

"Give us the Apaches and F16s that you have been suspending for over a year and a half now," Sisi said.

"And? If you get them?" Rose responded.

"We said it before and we reiterate the fact that . . . Egypt is in a real and serious confrontation with terrorism. The idea is the coalition is formed and we are part of this coalition. The symbolism is there with our public announcement that we are part of the coalition."

The US-Egypt rapprochement comes in the wake of a vast government crackdown on political opposition in which more than 20,000 people have been detained and more than 1,000 killed. In August, Human Rights Watch called for an investigation into what it said were likely “crimes against humanity” committed by the military-backed interim government in the summer of 2013. In a 188-page report based on a yearlong investigation, the rights group said Egypt's security forces carried out a premeditated lethal assault on the crowds of demonstrators in Rabaa Al-Adawiya. It was during the dispersal of the sit-in that Soltan was shot in the arm, days before was arrested from a house in a residential Cairo neighborhood.

Asked about Soltan’s deteriorating health at a news briefing in September, State Department Press Office Director Jeff Rathke said US officials were taking steps to help Soltan, including seeking consular visits with him, pressing authorities to give him proper medical care, and arranging for an outside physician to see him. "We continue to closely monitor this case and to raise it with Egyptian officials, urging the Egyptian Government to speedily present its evidence against him or to release him," he said.

The efforts of US officials, however, do not change the overarching balance of power surrounding Soltan’s case. “The US has made a strategic decision to focus on the security relationship with Egypt and is not reconsidering its economic aid, military aid, political relationship or other aspects of the bilateral relationship because the human rights situation in Egypt appears to be, as far as Washington is concerned, largely irrelevant,” said Issandr El Amrani, North Africa project director for International Crisis Group.

“The US has never prioritised human rights in Egypt. It has always prioritised military ties,” he said.