Egyptian-American sent to hospital after 230 days on hunger strike

An Egyptian-American prisoner who has been withering away on hunger strike for 230 days in Egypt was sent to a hospital this week after losing consciousness, but later returned to solitary confinement, according to media reports.

Mohamed Soltan, a graduate of Ohio State University, has been in prison since last August when security forces raided his house, looking for his father, Salah Soltan, who is a Muslim Brotherhood leader. 

He is one of approximately 16,000 people, according to figures confirmed by senior Egyptian ministry and military officials, who were arrested as part of a crackdown following the military's overthrow of president Mohamed Morsi last July.

The 27-year-old's arrest came just a week after he was shot in the arm when security forces broke up a pro-Brotherhood sit-in in Cairo's Rabaa al-Adawiya Square. 

Soltan was later charged - along with his father and 50 others, including Muslim Brotherhood supreme guide, Mohammed Badie - with running an operation room that organised demonstrations and attacks after security forces dispersed the pro-Morsi sit-in Rabaa. 

He had been in solitary confinement in Tora Prison, near Cairo, when he started to lose consciousness on a continuous basis as a result of his hunger strike, the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) reported this week.

He was taken to a hospital for unknown amount of time and then returned again to solitary confinement, ANHRI reported.

Soltan is known to suffer from a blood condition which requires the use of drugs to prevent blood clots.

In January, the New York Times published a letter by Soltan that had been smuggled out of prison in which he gave a graphic account of how his earlier gun shot wounds were left untreated. The letter was addressed to US President Barack Obama.

"Last week, I underwent a procedure to remove two 13” metal nails that were placed in my left arm to help support and repair the damage sustained from a gunshot wound I suffered at the hands of Egyptian security forces," the letter said. "The bullet that punctured my arm was paid for by our tax dollars." 

Fatima Mohammadi, a US lawyer who worked for years with Soltan on humanitarian issues, said he began his hunger strike "in protest of his extended imprisonment without evidence of any crime committed."