Jailed Activist Douma Suspends Hunger Strike

Jailed activist Ahmed Douma has suspended his hunger strike due to stomach and duodenum ulcers, his wife said via Facebook on Tuesday.

The renowned activist has filed an official police report registering the end of the strike.

Douma’s wife, Nourhan Hefzy, who had previously denied that Douma had broken his hunger strike, said he did not halt the action to save his life, but rather his medical condition had prevented him from continuing with it.

She said the authorities indirectly pressured him to end his hunger strike by refusing to move him to hospital and by not providing medical care that would have enabled him to continue.

Douma is currently serving three years in prison, along with April 6 co-founders Ahmed Maher and Mohamed Adel, for illegal protesting last November.

Hefzy said she learned that her husband had been moved to the prison hospital late on Monday.

She added that it does not have the facilities Douma needs, and asked for him to be moved to a more appropriate facility.

Last week, he appeared in court in a wheelchair looking frail. He is on trial in a separate case for his alleged participation in the cabinet clashes of December 2011.

Douma and over 80 other activists, detained mostly for violating the protest law, started a hunger strike a month ago in a campaign to demand their release and to revoke the law

Among the most prominent hunger strikers in prison is Mohamed Soltan, who has been on a hunger strike for more than 240 days despite his deteriorating health.

Activists outside prison have joined the hunger strike in solidarity with the detainees.

Their campaign has also earned the support of the Constitution Party, April 6 Youth Movement, Strong Egypt Party, journalists who held their hunger strike at the Journalists’ Syndicate, and other political movements.

Source : Ahram online