London, United Kingdom – Heba Muraisi and Kamran Ahmed, British activists associated with Palestine Action on the brink of death, are determined to continue their hunger strike in prison until their demands are met, their friends and relatives have told Al Jazeera.
They have refused food for 67 and 60 days respectively as part of a rolling protest that began in November. Five out of eight participants have given up their hunger strike due to health concerns. Levi Chiaramello, who turned 23 on Thursday, is the third inmate to refuse food.
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Muraisi, the longest-fasting member of the group, “looks very pale and thin”, said her friend Amreen Afzal, who visited the 31-year-old on Wednesday. “Her cheekbones are very prominent. She looks very emaciated.”
Muraisi has muscle cramps, shortness of breath, severe pain and a low white blood cell count. She has been hospitalized three times in the past nine weeks. Afzal has also noted Muraisi’s memory loss and says that it is now “more difficult for her to engage in conversation”.
“She talks about herself dying and she’s very conscious and she’s worried,” Afzal said.
But Muraisi “intends to continue until the demands are met”, she added.
A group of remand prisoners have been detained for their alleged involvement in break-ins at the UK subsidiary of Israeli defense firm Elbit Systems in Bristol and a Royal Air Force (RAF) base in Oxfordshire. They deny the allegations against them.
Their protest demands include bail, the right to a fair trial and a ban on Palestine Action, which the UK designated a “terrorist organization” in July, placing it alongside ISIL (ISIS) and al-Qaeda. They are demanding the closure of all Elbit sites in the UK and an end to prison censorship, accusing authorities of intercepting mail, calls and books.
All eight men will have spent more than a year in prison before their trials, beyond the UK’s usual six-month pre-trial detention limit.
At the time of publication, the Ministry of Defense had not responded to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.
‘Now every time you see him it feels like it could be the last time’
Ahmed, a mechanic in London, can’t hear in his left ear, is suffering from chest pain, shortness of breath and dizziness and a heart rate that occasionally falls below 40 beats per minute, Shahmina Alam visited her 28-year-old brother on Sunday.
Tuesday was the sixth time he was hospitalized since he refused to eat in November, she said.
“He’s skinny. I describe him as a piece of paper,” she told Al Jazeera. “Where he’s lost a lot of body weight, he’s a bit emaciated.
“His cheeks are sticking out. … When he got up to leave, it was a really slow step and you could tell it took a lot of energy to lift his legs.
“Now every time you see him, it feels like it could be the last.”
She worries that “the more time passes, the more determined he is to continue and make sure his demands are met”.
Ahmed is “aware at this point that he may pass away suddenly”, she said, but “he is still determined.”
Lawyers for the group are calling for a meeting with David Lammy, the deputy prime minister and justice secretary, hoping to discuss the prisoners’ welfare. Despite criticism from doctors, United Nations experts, some politicians and leading barristers, the government has refused, saying hunger strikes in prisons are not uncommon and that policies on refusing food are being followed.
“Had the government … chosen to have a meaningful conversation with (Ahmad’s) legal representatives or even mediators, we would not be in this position,” Alam said.
Doctors warn of death, irreversible health damage
Chiaramello refused food every other day for several weeks because he has type 1 diabetes.
His partner, Nyoma Jo-Ejim, a trainee lawyer, visited him on Wednesday, saying he was “almost permanently ill”. She fears that he is at high risk of diabetic coma.
On the days he fasts, he experiences disorientation, dizziness and lethargy, she said, adding that she worries about his new feelings of depression.
“It seems to be diminished a lot of the time,” she said.
James Smith, an emergency physician who is part of a group of doctors advising the hunger strikers, warned of a critical phase in which death and irreversible health damage are likely to escalate. He also criticized the method and level of medical care in prisons.
Teuta Hoxha, who ended her hunger strike after 58 days, is understood to be in hospital, while Amu Gib, who ended her protest after 50 days, is “physically weak”, Gib’s friend Nida Jafari said.
“Amu currently has no (doctor’s) advice on drinking milk,” she told Al Jazeera. We, as loved ones, fear this. We are aware that improperly processed food can be fatal.”
Muraisi is “wasting away”, Smith said, adding that her muscle spasms as well as Ahmed’s hearing loss could indicate neurological problems. Chiaramello’s diabetes condition is likely to worsen and cause long-term damage, he said.
“The path they’re on at the moment can only end in one way, which is progressive decline and ultimately death,” he told Al Jazeera. “Organs can stop for a while, especially in young healthy individuals, and then they can collapse very quickly,”
Hundreds of doctors have called on the UK government to increase the frequency of medical checks on hunger strikers.
Several activists were handcuffed and restrained while in the hospital, leading to claims of degrading and inhumane procedures that exceeded the prison’s stated policies.
“This is truly the most disrespectful treatment I have ever received in an NHS (National Health Service) environment in my career as a doctor,” Smith said.
Alam agreed, adding that Ahmed dreads being admitted to hospital because he finds the experience “mentally difficult”.
While in the hospital “he is constantly cuffing”, which has bruised his wrists, and is surrounded by a large number of prison guards, she said.
Supporters of the protestors went on hunger strike parallel to the history-making fast on Wednesday.
The current action since 1981 by Irish Republican prisoners led by Bobby Sands is said to be the largest coordinated hunger strike in British history. Walaj and nine others died of starvation.
Muraisi’s 66th day of food refusal was “significant because Bobby Sands died at the hands of the state on the 66th day of his hunger strike”, according to the group Prisoners for Palestine.
Francesca Nadine, a spokeswoman for the group, told Al Jazeera that she accused the government of “complete disregard for safety and the lives of these innocent young people because they are innocent until proven guilty.”
“The government seems to have forgotten this.”