Senate Foreign Relations Committee raises alarm over educational Salah Soltan’s declining well being amid ‘neglect in prison’.

A high United States Senate committee has mentioned it’s “deeply concerned” concerning the declining well being of Salah Soltan, an Egyptian educational and US everlasting resident who rights teams say has been arbitrarily detained in a Cairo-area jail.

Dozens of human rights organisations warned earlier this month that Soltan, 63, was “at risk of death” and urged the Egyptian authorities to right away launch him and supply “life-saving medical care”.

The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, chaired by Democrat Bob Menendez, echoed that in a tweet from its official account on Thursday, warning that Soltan’s well being was “rapidly declining … due to neglect in prison”.

“Egyptian authorities should release him and allow immediate access to lifesaving medical care,” the Twitter submit mentioned.

Deeply involved by Salah Soltan’s quickly declining well being as a result of neglect in jail. Egyptian authorities ought to launch him & permit fast entry to lifesaving medical care. https://t.co/XSyusKzCkd

— Senate Foreign Relations Committee (@SFRCdems) May 11, 2023

US President Joe Biden, who pledged to centre human rights in his international coverage, has faced calls to pressure Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi over the nation’s human rights document.

Rights teams have accused the el-Sisi authorities, which got here to energy in a 2013 army coup, of jailing tens of hundreds of dissidents and outlawing just about all types of political opposition. Cairo has denied holding political prisoners.

But whereas the Biden administration has supplied some public criticism of Egypt, it has continued to view the nation as a key ally. It additionally has not made any main overhauls to US military aid and sales to the Egyptian authorities.

“The US risks legitimizing Egypt’s abuses by continuing its near-total support,” Seth Binder, director of advocacy on the Project on Middle East Democracy, mentioned in a press release on May 3, urging the Biden administration to press Cairo for Soltan’s launch.

The Egyptian educational lived and labored within the US for greater than a decade previous to his arrest in Egypt in 2013, Human Rights Watch (HRW) mentioned in the identical assertion earlier this month.

Soltan was detained together with others who opposed the Egyptian army’s overthrow of the nation’s first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.

At the time, safety forces stormed a big protest gathering at Rabaa Square within the capital, Cairo, and shot tons of of unarmed demonstrators, based on rights teams.

Soltan was sentenced to life in jail in September 2017 as a part of a mass trial that has been criticised for violating the fitting to due course of and for its inclusion of international nationals and journalists.

The Egyptian authorities additionally deported his son, outstanding Egyptian-American rights advocate Mohamed Soltan, to the United States in May 2015. Mohamed was launched from an Egyptian jail after occurring a starvation strike in protest of his detention.

“[To be honest] I’m fresh [out of] ideas on what more I can do to save my dad’s life before it’s too late!” Mohamed Soltan wrote on Twitter on May 3 about his father’s ongoing detention.

“He’s in the world’s most notorious prisons in Egypt & reportedly had 2 minor heart complications in past [months] & was left unattended for 8 hrs! I need your help to #SaveSoltan!”

‘Deliberately abusing’

In its assertion on May 3, HRW and 50 different human rights teams warned that the deliberate denial of healthcare to Soltan might quantity to torture and urged the Egyptian authorities to research claims of ill-treatment at Badr jail, east of Cairo, the place he’s being held.

The alleged abuses embody “24/7 surveillance of cells with CCTV cameras, exposure to florescent lighting around the clock, and chaining prisoners to the walls of their cells without food and water for days at a time”, the teams mentioned.

Meanwhile, in a letter that leaked in March, Soltan mentioned jail authorities had disadvantaged him of satisfactory healthcare “even though he suffers from life-threatening heart and liver diseases among other complex medical conditions”.

His household has mentioned Soltan suffers from continual and new situations, together with diabetes, hypertension, hepatitis C, and a spinal disc situation, amongst others.

“On top of railroading him in an unfair trial, Egyptian authorities are deliberately abusing Salah Soltan’s rights by failing to provide him with healthcare,” mentioned Adam Coogle, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at HRW.

“The authorities should at minimum transfer him to a qualified medical facility where independent health professionals can treat him without hindrance.”
On Monday, US Congressman Don Beyer additionally joined the requires Egypt to right away launch Soltan. “Dr. Salah Soltan should never have been imprisoned to begin with, but the conditions he faces – including denial of essential health care – are now threatening his life,” he mentioned on Twitter.

Dr. Salah Soltan ought to by no means have been imprisoned to start with, however the situations he faces – together with denial of important well being care – are actually threatening his life. I name on Egyptian authorities to right away launch Dr. Soltan. https://t.co/oJqVWrk8M1

— Rep. Don Beyer (@RepDonBeyer) May 8, 2023