Responding to reports that five Palestine Action activists who are on hunger strike have been hospitalised, Kerry Moscogiuri, Director of Campaigns and Communications at Amnesty International UK, said:   

“Reports that Palestine Action activists on hunger strike have been hospitalised due to seriously deteriorating health send chills down the spine.  

“This is crisis point for these activists - prosecutors must drop the allegations of a ‘terrorism connection’ in these cases and end any excessively lengthy pre-trial detention. 

“Those on hunger strike are victims of the UK’s excessively broad terrorism laws which have been misused to escalate ordinary criminal prosecutions of direct-action protesters into terrorism cases. 

“Amnesty has consistently opposed the use of anti-terrorism powers in these cases. The use of terrorism laws to circumvent due process and impose harsher punishments on direct action protesters is a threat to expression and assembly rights for everyone.”