Three Egyptian activists end hunger strike at Tora prison after demands met

Three prominent activists detained in Egypt's Tora prison ended a hunger strike they had launched earlier in March after the prison's administration responded to their demands, Mada Misr reported on Thursday, citing the bother of one of detained activists. 

Writer and activist Ahmed Douma, sentenced to 15 years, lawyer and activist Ziyad El-Eleimy, serving five years, and researcher Ahmed Samir Santawy, imprisoned for four years, launched a hunger strike in protest of the mistreatment they had reportedly suffered inside the maximum-security prison, lawyer Mohamed Douma had told Mada Masr.

All three were reportedly physically assaulted by prison officers, denied access to books, or ability to be out in the prison's yard.

The news about the three activists' hunger strike was apparently leaked by the family of former opposition party leader and presidential candidate Abdel-Moneim Aboul-Fotouh, who shares the same cell with Douma, according to the report.

For his part, Aboul-Fotouh also accused prison guards in Tora prison of assaulting him. Earlier reports frequently said he had been subjected to medical negligence and not allowed to receive proper healthcare.

Earlier last week, the family of prominent activist Alaa Abdel-Fattah, also being held in Tora prison, announced he had begun a hunger strike on the first day of Ramadan.

"Alaa is extremely angry. But today he was different from the [awful] times we have been surviving [before]…he hasn't taken a reckless decision. Rather, it's well-calculated. He has decided to go through this fight even if we, as his family, won't be able to do anything to help," Abdel-Fattah's sister Mona Seif, tweeted on April 4.

She also included an infographic about his journey inside and outside courtrooms and prisons since 2011 in her post.  

رجاؤنا الوحيد انكم تساعدونا في وسط شهر قد كدة زحمة بالاجتماعيات والأنشطة، وكوكب قد كدة غرقان في كوارث وأخبار سياسية مختلفة .. نوصل صوت علاء وكل المضربين عن الطعام وما ننساهمش
*الصورة المرفقة عشان تفكرنا هو صبر على ايه وقد ايهhttps://t.co/Xydxik0j9Y#SaveAlaa#FreeAlaa pic.twitter.com/Lr9d798VUE

— Mona Seif (@Monasosh) April 4, 2022

Abdel-Fattah is a well-known blogger and computer programmer, who became one of the most influential voices during the 2011 Egyptian uprising against the rule of Hosni Mubarak.

Last December, Abdel Fattah was sentenced to five years in prison after he had been convicted, along with two other activists, of "broadcasting false news," among other-related changes.

He had earlier been kept in pre-trial detention illegally in solitary confinement for over two years before the verdict was made by the courts. 

The current Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has been accused by local and international rights groups of overseeing Egypt's worst crackdown on human rights in decades, with thousands of his critics behind bars.Some suffered medical negligence and were left to die slowly, while dozens others were executed or are on death row.