Members of Egypt's Journalists Syndicate staged an open sit-in Monday at 10 am at the syndicate's headquarters, downtown Cairo, against what they called "violations against imprisoned colleagues". Head of the syndicate's freedoms committee, Khaled Al-Balshy and member of the syndicate's council Mahmoud Kamel said their imprisoned colleagues suffer due to lack of health care. Journalist Yussef Sha'ban, detained in Al-Akrab (Serpent) Prison, has been suffering from problems in the liver after being deprived of medications for nearly 10 months, they said. They added journalist Hani Salah needs urgent surgeries to remove a tumor and to treat problems in the retina. The two imprisoned journalists have staged a hunger strike to force authorities improve health care situation in the prison.
