Palestine Action-affiliated hunger strikers are likely to die without David Lammy’s intervention, lawyers representing the prisoners have said as they criticised the justice secretary for refusing to meet them.
Solicitors wrote to Lammy last Wednesday to request an urgent meeting before their clients’ health deteriorates “beyond any possible recovery”. But a subsequent letter sent on Tuesday said that his reply, received on Monday “does not directly address our request”.
Two of those refusing food are on day 45 of their protest – one day less than Martin Hurson did before becoming the sixth of 10 IRA hunger strikers to die in 1982 – and another is on day 44.
The latest letter says that Qesser Zuhrah, who has been refusing food since 2 November, experienced her legs shaking uncontrollably a few nights ago, collapsed on to the floor for hours and went in and out of consciousness.
Zuhrah, who is being held at HMP Bronzefield in Surrey awaiting trial, was sick in an ambulance which was called only after an entire night of her begging to be taken to the hospital.
The lawyers say that Amy Gardiner-Gibson, also at HMP Bronzefield on day 45, is exhausted and their test results are showing low white blood cells, low red blood cells and cognitive decline.
“Given the context of our clients’ rapidly deteriorating health and the increasing likelihood that they might die as a result of this strike, this is highly concerning,” the letter from Imran Khan & Partners, seen by the Guardian, says.
It adds that their commitment to this course of action “means that their death is increasingly more than a mere possibility. It is a likelihood, particularly if the situation remains unresolved.”
The demands of the prisoners – who will have have been in prison for more than a year before they are tried – include immediate bail, ending the ban on Palestine Action and stopping restrictions on their communications.
They allege that mail, calls and visits have been restricted on spurious grounds or without explanation, that legal mail has been opened unlawfully, access to books has been blocked, inmates have been taken off or banned from prison jobs for “security reasons” and “non-association orders” have been implemented between their clients.
A lack of or late medical observations or treatment since the hunger strike began is also alleged in some cases.
Two out of the eight hunger strikers – Jon Cink, who was in hospital, and Umer Khalid, who has muscular dystrophy – are understood to have ended their protest. The other prisoners refusing food are Heba Muraisi (day 44), Teuta Hoxha (day 38), Kamran Ahmed (day 37) and Lewie Chiaramello (day 12), who has diabetes.
More than 50 MPs and peers have written to Lammy urging him to meet with MPs representing the hunger strikers and their loved ones, or their lawyers, “and act to prevent a catastrophe”.
The independent MP and former Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, put the request for a meeting to the justice minister, Jake Richards, in the Commons on Tuesday. When Richards replied “no”, laughter was heard from some MPs in the chamber, prompting Corbyn to post on X that “they should be ashamed of themselves”.
Last week, the speaker of the House of Commons, Lindsay Hoyle, said it was “totally unacceptable” that Lammy had failed to reply to a request from the Labour MP, John McDonnell, for a meeting with MPs to discuss the hunger strikers.
The lawyers’ letter to Lammy says: “You are uniquely placed in that as a senior government minister with oversight of His Majesty’s prison service, you can bring about a resolution of the situation, such that the increasing deterioration of our clients’ health does not lead to their death.
“We make clear that our request for a meeting is in an effort to seek to resolve the immediate situation and prevent the loss of life. Unless you tell us, we cannot see any reason why you would not want to engage in this process.”
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “We continually assess prisoners’ wellbeing and will always take the appropriate action, including taking prisoners to hospital if they are assessed as needing treatment by a medical professional.
“His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service has assured ministers that all cases of prisoner food refusal are being managed in accordance with the relevant policy and with appropriate medical assessment and support, consistent with prisoner rights.”
