To the Right Honourable David Lammy MP
102 Petty France
London
SW1H 9AJ
22 December 2025
Re: Urgent concern – medical neglect and mistreatment of hunger strikers on remand
Dear David Lammy and Ministry of Justice,
I am writing as the loved one of Amu Gib, who is now on day 51 of their hunger strike while on remand for actions relating to Palestine Action. I write in deep fear for their life, and in outrage at the medical neglect, performative cruelty, and bureaucratic indifference they and others have faced under your department’s care.
This whole journey over the past six to seven weeks has not been easy. We have not slept. We have been terrified that they may die.
At the beginning of the hunger strike, the prison simply refused to acknowledge it for the first 10 days. This is dangerous, as there are specific rules that govern hunger strikes: daily GP appointments, regular checks of vitals, provision and monitoring of electrolytes, and thiamine supplementation. All of these were withheld for at least the first 10 days.
Over the past weeks, I have seen and documented repeated refusals by hospitals to admit or treat them adequately – from Kamran to Qesser to Umer – each of them non-white and Muslim prisoners, each handcuffed while their bodies waste away. Even when hospitalised, they have been kept in restraints for over 24 hours at a time. This shackling, when met with the visible frailty of starvation, is an act of deliberate humiliation. The imprint of those cuffs has become a mark of state cruelty – a scar that tells of how the system treats protesters for Palestine.
They are not a flight risk; they are so weak that Amu now needs a wheelchair to move around the prison. There is no justification for handcuffing them while hospitalised. They have received inadequate medical observation. On day 45 of the hunger strike, the prison had run out of electrolytes. Their pain has been repeatedly dismissed and disbelieved.
Repeated requests for intervention have been dismissed or ignored – from David Lammy, Jake Richards, Keir Starmer, and Lord Timpson, among others. The refusal to act, or even to acknowledge this neglect, highlights an institutional lack of care and a racialised hierarchy of whose suffering counts.
Three weeks ago, when my friend was at a critical stage, David Lammy claimed not to know about it. In those three weeks, we have been laughed out of meetings and brushed off by Labour MPs when we tried to have this raised in Parliament. This is astonishing cruelty.
These people are on remand – not convicted, still awaiting full legal process. They are weak, in pain, and visibly wasting away. The absence of adequate medical observation or humane treatment under prison or hospital care is not only unacceptable; it breaches fundamental rights to health, dignity, and life.
Our demands are simple, clear, and urgent:
1. End all censorship
Prisoners must be able to send and receive communications without restriction, surveillance, or interference from the prison administration. Freedom of expression is a fundamental human right, especially for those already silenced by incarceration. Letters, phone calls, political statements, books, and all other forms of communication must be respected and protected.
2. Immediate bail
All hunger strikers must be released from custody while awaiting trial. Holding people on indefinite remand is an abuse of power, used to punish before conviction. Some have been imprisoned for nearly two years without trial. The right to a fair trial also means the right to prepare for it in freedom.
3. Right to a fair trial
All relevant documents related to these cases must be released in full, including meetings between British and Israeli state officials, the British police, the Attorney General, and Elbit Systems’ representatives. The public has the right to know what arms are being manufactured and exported from the UK, especially when they are used to commit atrocities.
4. Deproscribe Palestine Action
All terror-related charges and “links” — and the use of the Prevent strategy against activists — must be dropped. Direct action is not terrorism. It is a legitimate, moral response when formal political channels fail. We also call for a public apology from Yvette Cooper for her smear campaign falsely depicting Palestine Action as violent or foreign-funded.
5. Shut Elbit down
The British government must end all contracts with Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest weapons company, and permanently close its UK sites and subsidiaries. No taxpayer money should fund weapons used in genocide. The proposed £2.7 billion Ministry of Defence contract with Elbit must be cancelled.
It is terrifying to write this letter knowing a loved one is dying in plain sight while the state looks away. The silence from Parliament – from those we approached in good faith – compounds the fear and isolation families like mine endure. We are left begging the very institutions responsible for this cruel neglect to intervene before it becomes fatal.
I call on you, urgently, to act – to ensure these people are treated as human beings, not hostages.
Their lives depend on immediate and humane action.
Yours sincerely,
Nida Jafri, Loved one of Amu Gib
To the Right Honourable David Lammy MP
102 Petty France
London
SW1H 9AJ
22 December 2025
Re: Urgent concern – medical neglect and mistreatment of hunger strikers on remand
Mr. LAMMY has recently and regularly employed the aphorism that ‘Justice delayed is justice denied. ‘
It is therefore utterly astonishing that he has been unwilling so far to address a stark and stunning example of this by meeting himself the relatives and friends of those severely impacted by a broken criminal justice system. A system which has presently accumulated a backlog of 17,700 cases on remand most of whom are awaiting trial and prison population of 88,000 against a capacity of 88,980. This inattention to the domestic system of justice is matched by successive governments inattention to international justice and the rule of law especially in relation to the Middle East which is the very point at the heart of the original protest and for which there is no accountability let alone a night in Wandsworth prison!
Currently fundamental human rights in the United Kingdom are being destroyed in this quagmire of disinterest and populist politics. The most important being the presumption of innocence and the right to a fair trial by means of preparation and due process. There has to be an equality of arms which can hardly be achieved when a defendant is held in oppressive and lengthy periods of remand. As the families graphically describe the plight being suffered is that of a hostage.
The usual mantra of not turning up for trial or continuing activity – reasons often provided by the state – can be addressed and contained in all but the most exceptional cases where there is evidence to the contrary in the past.
This predicament derives from gross Government inaction – a basic lack of resourcing and investment accompanied by a disingenuous unwillingness to uphold the rights which are at the core of a democratic way of life.
In no way can juries be blamed let alone those who end up as prisoners.
Government takes action when it chooses to (early release programme) and there could be no more appropriate time than now with the life endangering protest by the hunger strikers. The delay is grotesque in some cases up to two years with trial dates being set in 2027. For the acquitted this means they will have served in essence a 4- or 5-year prison sentence allowing for remission. A true example of the words of Lewis Carroll uttered in the trial of the knave by the Queen of Hearts ‘Sentence first verdict afterwards ‘
The remand conditions are almost worse than those for the convicted. In any one day there can be 23 hours of lock up. Some have been denied access to relatives with restrictions on communication and religious observation and additionally access to books. The physical and psychological restrictions therefore over the extensive periods waiting for trial are not conducive to a fair trial which itself can last some weeks and often involve important points of human rights law.
Time for Mr LAMMY to remove his head from the sand and start taking sensible steps towards a fair and proportionate resolution. Otherwise, Mr. LAMMY and justice remain just a bunch of ruffled feathers!
Michael Mansfield KC
22 Dec 2025