Qatar-based cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi accuses Egypt of imprisoning daughter over Gulf crisis

Egyptian Muslim scholar Yusuf al-Qaradawi has accused Cairo of holding his daughter in solitary confinement for over a year, over a regional feud with Qatar.

The Doha-based cleric made the comments in an online statement on Monday, in his first public comments on the imprisonment of his 56-year-old daughter Ola al-Qaradawi and her husband.

"A whole year of solitary confinement in one of the worst prisons in the world, during which my daughter has been subjected to extremely bad treatment," Qaradawi said.

"During this tragic imprisonment, she has been deprived of her most basic rights with no end to the insults and harm done to her - in a form of slow, intentional murder."

Qaradawi accused Cairo of jailing Ola because of the ongoing diplomatic spat between a Saudi-led bloc of Arab countries  - including Egypt - and Qatar.

"Why has this happened? Because she is my daughter and has Qatari nationality? This must be revenge against me and Qatar by attacking a weak point," he added.

Last week, Ola went on hunger strike in protest of her solitary confinement, her lawyers and family told London-based news website Middle East Eye.

Ola and her husband, Hosam Khalaf, were arrested in Egypt on 30 June 2017.

Their detention has been periodically renewed, without formal charges being pressed against them.

Ola, who is not politically active, is now Egypt's longest-standing female political prisoner in solitary confinement.

An Egyptian court in January sentenced her father - who lives in exile in Qatar - to life in prison for "incitement to murder".

On June 7, 2017, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt severed ties with Qatar, accusing it of backing terrorism, and imposed punitive measures. Doha has denied the charges.

Ola's arrest came less than a month into the Gulf crisis.

The Saudi-led bloc also placed her influential father on a "terror list" and the Saudi-backed Muslim World League booted the cleric from the organisation.

Qaradawi has been considered the spiritual guide of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.

The Islamist movement has been heavily suppressed since a military coup against Egypt's first freely elected president Mohamed Morsi.

Egyptian authorities have killed and arrested thousands of the group's members, supporters and suspected sympathisers since the 2013 military overthrow of Morsi, led by current President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.