Egypt puts activist on hunger strike on medical treatment

By The Associated Press

CAIRO (AP) — Family members say Egyptian prison authorities have intervened medically with imprisoned pro-democracy activist Alaa Abdel-Fattah, who this week escalated his hunger strike to refuse water. The family is demanding his release. A family lawyer who was first given permission to visit Abdel-Fattah on Thursday was later in the day turned back from the prison. The family has previously expressed fears that prison officials would force-feed Abdel-Fattah, which they said would amount to torture. The activist stopped drinking water Nov. 6, the day Egypt opened the U.N. Climate conference. He has spent most of the past decade behind bars with his detention becoming a symbol of the North African country’s return to autocratic rule.