Al Jazeera journalist Abdullah al-Shami has been detained without charge or trial in Egypt for more than 250 days. He has been on a hunger strike since January to protest the conditions at Tora prison and his health has sharply deteriorated.
Meanwhile, three other Al Jazeera English journalists – correspondent Peter Greste and producers Mohammed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed – were back in court this week for the resumption of their trial on charges of spreading false news and aiding the Muslim Brotherhood, which Egypt has labelled as a terrorist organisation.
Al Jazeera has rejected the charges against all of its staff and called for their immediate release.
On Tuesday, al-Shami’s mother, Thuraya al-Shami, spoke with Al Jazeera about her son’s condition and how the family is coping with his ongoing detention.
Al Jazeera: Abdullah has been on a hunger strike for three months. What do you know about his health at this point?
Thuraya al-Shami: Abdullah started his hunger strike on the 21st of January. He wanted to start this earlier because it appeared that it was the only way, because any other way was blocked. There were no charges, no court. We supported him on this decision because we thought it’s the only way for him. It had a great effect on his health and we knew it would affect his health negatively. He’s now feeding on only water and he lost very much weight, more than 35kg of his weight, and most of his organs are immensely affected by this. It also affected his bones, because in his last message he said that even the 30-minute break they give to prisoners, he can’t go out any more because his bones are not helping him. Walking and moving became very difficult. When Abdullah was arrested he was fully healthy. I haven’t seen him for more than three months now so I’m sure the effect is very great. Three months on hunger strike, this is not something easy
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