A Palestinian Action protester is “deteriorating” after nearly 70 days on a hunger strike while in prison awaiting trial, her friends have warned.
Heba Muraisi, 31, is struggling to breathe and suffering from headaches and lightheadedness after turning down food while being held at HMP New Hall in Yorkshire over alleged break-ins on behalf of the group.
After 69 days, she is one of three activists still on strike over demands including immediate bail, with doctors warning they face permanent injury or death if they continue.
Ms Muraisi’s friend Amareen Afzal told Sky News following a visit on Tuesday: “I think she’s lost over 10kg now. She looks very different to the photographs that you’ll see of her.”
She said that Ms Muraisi “struggles to sleep on one side of her body because it’s too painful”, and sometimes feels so lightheaded that she gets nauseous.
“She’s aware that she’s deteriorating and physically dying, you know, that her body could fail her at any moment,” she added.
Ms Muraisi’s next of kin, Francesca Nadin, said this week that she has been having difficulty breathing and in thinking clearly: “It is really concerning. But mentally, she is still strong and able to laugh and joke.
“We just don’t know when that deterioration will come.”
Ms Nadin noted that Ms Muraisi had been on a hunger strike for as long as IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands, who died while imprisoned in Northern Ireland in 1981.
Physicians have warned that Ms Muraisi and fellow striker, 28-year-old Kamran Ahmed, are now in a critical stage, in which their condition is likely to worsen quickly and irreversibly, according to the Prisoners for Palestine group.
Mr Ahmed, who is being held on remand at HMP Pentonville, has been taken to hospital six times since he began his hunger strike, the organisation said. He was most recently taken to hospital at 1am on Wednesday for a heart complication, 59 days into his hunger strike, his sister said.
Lewie Chiaramello, who is type 1 diabetic, has been fasting every other day. All three say they will starve until Palestine Action is de-proscribed and until the UK ends support for companies sending weapons to Israel.
They deny charges related to alleged break-ins or criminal damage at the UK subsidiary of Israeli defence firm Elbit Systems, based in Bristol, and at an RAF base in Oxfordshire, on behalf of Palestine Action, before the group was banned under terrorism legislation.
Dr David Nicholl, a neurologist who has studied prison hunger strikes, told Sky News that the strikers could be at risk of permanent harm and death, even if they stop now.
“The biggest risk immediately is what’s called refeeding syndrome,” he said. He explained that there was a risk to suddenly ending a hunger strike after such a long time without food.
Prisons minister Lord Timpson said hunger strikes are “very concerning” but not a new issue for prisons.
“Over the last five years, we’ve averaged over 200 a year and we have long-standing procedures in place to ensure prisoner safety,” the minister said.
“Prison healthcare teams provide NHS care and continuously monitor the situation. HMPPS is clear that claims that hospital care is being refused are entirely misleading – they will always be taken when needed, and a number of these prisoners have already been treated in hospital.
“These prisoners are charged with serious offences, including aggravated burglary and criminal damage. Remand decisions are for independent judges, and lawyers can make representations to the court on behalf of their clients.
“Ministers will not meet with them – we have a justice system that is based on the separation of powers, and the independent judiciary is the cornerstone of our system. It would be entirely unconstitutional and inappropriate for ministers to intervene in ongoing legal cases.”
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