On Wednesday, June 7, a number of detainees in Swaqa prison in Amman went on a hunger strike following the death of an inmate due to deliberate medical negligence.
The detainees sent letters to the Prime Minister, Minister of Interior, and Director of Public Security stating that the ill-treatment and the slow killing policy under and medical negligence resulted in the death of the detainee Anas Ibrahim Thalji.
Thalji died three months before his sentence would have finished.
The letter stated that “Thalji was illegally held in solitary confinement, despite his critical health condition, as he was suffering from cardiac and many other illnesses.”
It continued; “When Thalji demanded to be moved to collective cells, after going on a hunger strike several strikes, the prison director, Ghazi Al-Raoud, refused, and told him: (you won’t leave the solitary confinement until you die).”
Furthermore, Thalji, who died of a heart attack had also appealed to the head of preventive security, Saad Zenibat, to be released, but he refused as well.
“We demand to have meetings with the following bodies: the Parliamentary Freedoms Committee, the Public Prosecutor for Police Rights, the Red Cross, and other human rights organisation”, the letter concluded.
Arab Organisation for Human Rights in the UK (AOHR UK) stated that according to close resources to Thalji’s family, the prison administration held him in solitary confinement for 40 days, until his death, despite having chronic diseases, including cardiac illness, high blood pressure and cholesterol.
Thalji had gone on a hunger strike for 10 days to protest his solitary confinement, and ended it two days before his death, due to the deterioration of his health condition, according to the doctors, who also stated that he was transferred to hospital two days after his health had severely deteriorated.
Thalji’s family submitted many complaints to the prison administration, the National Center for Human Rights and a number of organisations requesting his release, at no avail.
The State Security Military Court sentenced Thalji to 10 years in prison on charges of attempting to travel to Syria to join the armed groups there.
Thaljis basic right to life was violated under deliberate medical negligence and inside poor medical conditions that exacerbated his diseases inside Jordanian prisons.
