Prominent Muslim Brotherhood member Salah Soltan has asked for the release of his son, Mohamed, requesting that he be punished with the verdicts to be issued against Mohamed instead. Soltan made the request on grounds of his son's deteriorating health, and due to his wife's recent travels abroad for cancer treatment, said family spokesperson Sara Mohamed. The court postponed the trial on Sunday to 21 December. Mohamed Soltan had fallen into a coma and suffered memory loss last week, with a nurse telling the family that he had witnessed the patient "coming back from death". Mohamed Soltan has been on hunger strike for 321 days of his 476 days in prison. Police forces arrested Mohamed Soltan and two of his friends when seeking the arrest of Salah. Mohamed and Salah Soltan are charged with "forming an operations room to direct the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood group to defy the government during the Rabaa [Al-Adaweya] sit-in dispersal and to spread chaos in the country", according to a statement released by the Prosecutor General's office on 3 February. Alongside Muslim Brotherhood Supreme guide Mohamed Badei, who is also a defendant in the trial, the Soltans form part of a group of 52 defendants in the case. Mohamed Soltan was transferred to the intensive care unit three times and has had two strokes during his detention. He is suffering from systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), an autoimmune disease which can cause strokes and damage vital organs.
