CAIRO
By Hussein Qabani
A jailed Muslim Brotherhood leader on Wednesday vowed to maintain a hunger strike until Egyptian authorities stop taking "vengeful" measures against him.
Mohamed al-Beltagi, a leading Brotherhood member currently being held at a maximum-security Cairo prison, accused Egyptian authorities of taking revenge on him personally.
"I refuse to bow to the bloody military coup authorities that killed my daughter and hundreds of others," a statement on al-Beltagi's Facebook page read.
Al-Beltagi's daughter, Asmaa, was killed in August along with hunderds when security forces violently dispersed a Cairo sit-in staged by supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi.
A university professor, al-Beltagi was arrested in late August and placed in southern Cairo's notorious Al-Aqrab prison.
Administrators of al-Beltagi's Facebook page announced that the Brotherhood leader had launched a hunger strike last Saturday after prison authorities began taking "vengeful" measures against him.
Al-Beltagi, they said, had resorted to waging a hunger strike after he was put in solitary confinement and banned from receiving visits by family members until Tuesday.
"I will stand my ground until my last breath," the Facebook page quoted him as saying. "I will continue to look my oppressors in the eye and never bow to the bloody coup authorities that killed my daughter and hundreds of others."
It was the first message that was leaked from al-Beltagi since he was placed in solitary confinement more than one week ago.
Prison authorities have recently attempted to prevent direct contact between Muslim Brotherhood prisoners and visiting family members, obliging them to see one another through thick glass dividers.
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