Jailed blogger Abdel-Monem Mahmoud along with 23 other jailed students from the Institute of Agricultural Engineering threatened to begin a hunger strike on Tuesday May 8 in protest of their harsh detention conditions. According to a hunger strike statement sent today, the detainees claimed that they were subject to sexual harassment by prisoners of common law with whom they're sharing the space.
Lawyer Islam Lotfi, a member of Abd Al-Moneim's defense panel said that the “Al Mahkom” prison where Monem is kept “is designated for the most vicious criminals” and that “several cases of TB and HIV have been detected among prisoners.”