Palestine Action Activist Forced to ‘Crawl to Toilet Like a Wounded Dog’

A Palestine Action activist who suffers from muscular dystrophy has been unable to leave his cell for 23 hours a day and must crawl to the toilet like a “wounded dog”. 

Umer Khalid is one of five activists accused of breaking into the UK’s largest airbase, RAF Brize Norton. He has been imprisoned at HM Wormwood Scrubs since July 2025 while awaiting trial.

According to Khalid, the prison has failed to provide him with walking aids and has kept him in a cell for up to 23 hours per day. His condition has deteriorated so much that he is now unable to get out of bed and has difficulty breathing. 

“I’ve had to crawl across the prison floor in front of dozens of prisoners, as if I’m some wounded dog,” he told Middle East Eye via an intermediary. 

Staff have also reportedly refused to deliver his medication, leaving Khalid to crawl to the dispensary. The prison was so slow to deliver him a shower chair that the 22-year-old went more than 20 weeks without washing, he said. 

Khalid’s solicitor, Laura O’Brien, said she sent the prison his full medical records and wrote follow-up letters expressing concern, to no response. 

“What has been happening is a continued suggestion that he’s been putting it on, despite incontrovertible medical evidence that he has a progressive genetic condition, and that it is getting worse,” she said. 

Khalid was also not provided with a wheelchair until the end of March – but because the chair was too big to fit through the door to his cell, he still has to crawl into his room. 

One of the nine Palestine Action activists who went on hunger strike last year, Khalid was the last to end his strike after being hospitalised with organ failure in January following 17 days without food and three days without water. 

Khalid is set to stand trial in January 2027, by which time he will have spent a year and a half in prison – three times the standard limit of six months. 

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson told the Guardian: “The Prison Service caters to all disabilities. All prisoners’ needs are assessed when they enter custody – with arrangements made, and appropriate action taken to ensure they are met.”