Kamran Ahmed, who has not eaten for over two months, told Declassified on Sunday that his body was “twitching” uncontrollably and he fears heart failure.
Ahmed was arrested in November 2024 and his trial is not expected to start until June 2026. Prosecution guidelines say prisoners should normally not be held on remand for more than six months.
Ahmed is among a number of Palestine Action suspects on remand beyond that time limit.
“If I pass out while I have this twitching, I can’t move. I’d probably just end up staying frozen on my bed,” unable to press the alarm button in his cell. Ahmed, who spoke to Declassified by phone from Pentonville prison, described having chest pains and being on the brink of fainting.
He is protesting at being denied bail following his arrest for an alleged break-in by Palestine Action at an Elbit System factory in 2024. Elbit is Israel’s largest arms firm and provides 85% of the drones used by Israel’s army in Gaza.
Right?
You can’t set a precedent for just not eating (or in one of these PA cases, intermittent fasting, as they are eating every other day) as a means to get what you want. Even someone with 3 braincells should be able to work out why that would be bad.
Force feeding is generally viewed as being an affront to someone’s rights, and the government would get called monsters for doing that.
Letting people off the hook if they refuse to eat is obviously not something that can even be entertained.
Letting them do what they want with their own bodies can lead to harm, although that is ultimately their own choice.
There’s no nice answer here.