Career
He was one of the media spokesmen for the camp in Cairo’s Rabaa al-Adawiya Square, where protesters called for the reinstatement of deposed President Mohamed Morsi. He was arrested along with 3 other youths by Egyptian security forces on 27 August 2013. Soltan has been charged with a number of terrorand conspiracy-related charges in connection with his participation in demonstrations against Morsi"s ouster.
In January 26, 2014, he entered into a hunger strike to protest his detention by the Egyptian authorities.
He was released and sent back to the United States on May 31, 2015. His hunger strike lasted more than 400 days.
He was among the media spokesmen for the Rabaa al-Adawiya Square protesters calling for the reinstatement of deposed President Morsi. On 14 August 2013, after a police operation to disperse the protest camp, he was injured while speaking to a television reporter.
At Soltan’s first appearance in front of a judge on 26 January 2014, Egypt’s public prosecutor did not present evidence incriminating him in the “operations room” plot — but the judge renewed his detention anyway.
This caused him to take the decision to hunger strike. According to a Guardian report citing an independent medical report facilitated by the United States embassy, Soltan had lost at least a third of his bodyweight and was unable to stand unassisted on his 100th day of hunger strike in jail. On 27 May 2014, a video showing Soltan was released by Cable News Network’s Christiane Amanpour in which Soltan asks President Obama and the international community for help.
A United States embassy official has said embassy representatives have visited Soltan several times at the Tora prison outside Cairo and have been present at Soltan’s hearings.
Soltan’s family has accused the United States. government of not doing enough to push Egyptian authorities to resolve or drop his case, which they say is politically motivated. Supporters of Soltan have also called the charges against him to be politically motivated.
The hunger strike by Soltan has sparked criticism of the Egyptian authorities on social media and led to mass petitions and demonstrations to highlight his imprisonment.
