(Beirut) – Egyptian authorities should urgently provide health care to Salah Soltan, the detained father of a prominent Egyptian rights defender living in the US, or immediately release him to receive medical attention and investigate claims of torture, 19 human rights organizations said today. On January 26, 2022, Salah Soltan, 63, an official in the government of former President Mohamed Morsy and the father of human rights defender Mohamed Soltan appeared to be in critical health during a prison visit, a relative said. Salah Soltan has been detained since September 2013, and has been subjected to enforced disappearance since June 15, 2020, punctuated by three brief supervised visits. Soltan’s health was so poor during the January 2022 visit that he was unable to support his own weight and was carried into the room by two guards, according to the relative. Soltan told the relative that prison officials had not granted his multiple requests to see a doctor as well as the medication and medical equipment he needs for his multiple health conditions. “Salah Soltan’s deteriorating health appears to be the result of reprisals for his son Mohamed’s advocacy in the US,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. Salah Soltan, a legal permanent resident in the US, lived and worked in the US for more than a decade prior to his September 2013 arrest for opposing the Egyptian military’s ousting of Morsy, the elected president. He was sentenced to life in prison in a September 2017 mass trial that was marred by extensive due process and fair trial violations.