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London, United Kingdom \u2013<\/strong> Lawyers of imprisoned hunger-striking activists linked to the protest group Palestine Action have put the British government on notice as the justice secretary refuses to meet them.<\/p>\n Imran Khan & Partners, which represents the collective, wrote a pre-claim letter to the government on Monday, warning that they would seek a High Court case should officials fail to respond by Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n list of 4 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n Eight activists, aged between 20 and 31, have participated in a rolling strike that began on November 2. There are rising fears that one or more of them could soon die in jail.<\/p>\n In recent days, their relatives and loved ones have told Al Jazeera of their deteriorating health and repeated hospital admissions.<\/p>\n Their lawyers have long called for a meeting with Justice Secretary David Lammy to discuss welfare and prison conditions, believing such an intervention could be life-saving.<\/p>\n But the government has so far refused, saying hunger strikes are not an unusual phenomenon in prisons and that policies to provide adequate medical care to anyone refusing food are being followed.<\/p>\n \u201cOur clients\u2019 food refusal constitutes the largest co-ordinated hunger strike in British history since 1981,\u201d the lawyers wrote, referring to the Irish Republican inmates led by Bobby Sands. Sands and nine others died of starvation, one on day 46 of the protest.<\/p>\n \u201cAs of today\u2019s date, [the current] strike has lasted up to 51 days, nearly two months, and poses a significant risk to their life with each passing day,\u201d the lawyers wrote.<\/p>\n The detainees are being held in five prisons over their alleged involvement in break-ins at the United Kingdom\u2019s subsidiary of the Israeli defence firm Elbit Systems in Bristol and a Royal Air Force base in Oxfordshire. They deny the charges against them, such as burglary and violent disorder.<\/p>\n Amu Gib, Heba Muraisi, Teuta Hoxha and Kamran Ahmed are on day 52, 51, 45 and 44 of their protests, respectively. Lewie Chiaramello, who is diabetic and refuses food every other day, began his protest 30 days ago.<\/p>\n Qesser Zuhrah, Jon Cink and Umer Khalid have ended their strike.<\/p>\n All eight will have spent more than a year in prison before their trials take place, well beyond the UK\u2019s usual six-month pre-trial detention limit.<\/p>\n The hunger strikers\u2019 five demands include immediate bail, the right to a fair trial and the de-proscription of Palestine Action, which accuses the UK government of complicity in Israel\u2019s war crimes in Gaza. The UK government banned Palestine Action in July, branding it a \u201cterror\u201d group, a label that applies to groups such as ISIL (ISIS). The protesters have called for an end to alleged censorship in prison, accusing authorities of withholding mail, calls and books. They are also urging that all Elbit sites be closed.<\/p>\n Leading human rights barrister Michael Mansfield has backed calls for the government to intervene.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a simple proposition, engage with each one,\u201d he told Al Jazeera. \u201cThat\u2019s your job [as government], that\u2019s what you\u2019re there for. You are safeguarding people\u2019s health, welfare and life.\u201d<\/p>\n In a letter addressed to Lammy, he wrote, \u201cFundamental human rights in the United Kingdom are being destroyed in this quagmire of disinterest and populist politics, the most important being the presumption of innocence and the right to a fair trial by means of preparation and due process.<\/p>\n \u201cThere has to be an equality of arms which can hardly be achieved when a defendant is held in oppressive and lengthy periods of remand.\u201d<\/p>\n Families of the prisoners have alleged mistreatment in prison, saying some detainees have been verbally abused and left without care in dangerous health conditions. The Ministry of Justice has denied these accusations and says it cannot comment on individual cases.<\/p>\n \u201cGovernment takes action when it chooses to,\u201d Mansfield wrote. \u201cThere could be no more appropriate time than now with the life-endangering protest by the hunger strikers. The delay is grotesque in some cases, up to two years with trial dates being set in 2027.\u201d<\/p>\n Nida Jafri, a friend of hunger striker Amu Gib, plans to deliver Mansfield\u2019s letter \u2013 and one of her own \u2013 in hand to the Ministry of Justice on Tuesday.<\/p>\n \u201cThese people are on remand \u2013 not convicted, still awaiting full legal process,\u201d reads Jafri\u2019s letter. \u201cThey are weak, in pain, and visibly wasting away. The absence of adequate medical observation or humane treatment under prison or hospital care is not only unacceptable; it breaches fundamental rights to health, dignity, and life.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n London, United Kingdom \u2013 Lawyers of imprisoned hunger-striking activists linked to the protest group Palestine Action have put the British government on notice as the justice secretary refuses to meet them. Imran Khan & Partners, which represents the collective, wrote a pre-claim letter to the government on Monday, warning that they would seek a High […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6381,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
\u2018Engage with each one\u2019<\/h2>\n
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