SANGHA KOMMUNE (SSR)

The group included four activists who had participated in a hunger strike against the proscription of Palestine Action and their treatment in prison. They told a press conference in London that they were subjected to medical mistreatment while in prison and are exploring legal avenues for restitution.

Heba Muraisi, 31, said she had to use a pillowcase as a hijab during prayer, as the prison staff at HMP Bronzefield in Surrey, where she was held, took away her keffiyeh and refused to replace it with a different hijab.

Muraisi, who spent 15 months in prison, during which she was on hunger strike for 73 days, also said her body was “exposed on the street in the presence of a man” during arrest, though she did not give details. When Muraisi was sent to hospital for refeeding, after 30 days of her hunger strike, she added, she was cuffed to a male guard.

“They tried to force me to change out my clothes, meaning I would have to strip while cuffed to a man, vulnerable and exposed, waiting for this male guard to hand me my clothes,” she said. “There was a second guard who was female, but she refused to swap places with him.” 

Like other hunger strikers, Muraisi said that she was not given electrolytes — essential minerals that help muscles and nerves to work, which normally come from food — and that staff delayed granting her medical attention.