分类： society

A remand prisoner linked to the activist group Palestine Action has laid bare damning allegations of systemic medical neglect and degrading treatment at a high-security London prison, detailing how failures to provide adequate mobility support and care have left him crawling across cell floors to access basic needs.

Muhammad Umer Khalid, 23, is currently held at HMP Wormwood Scrubs awaiting trial over charges connected to a June 2023 break-in at a Royal Air Force base. Living with incurable progressive muscular dystrophy – a rare genetic condition that causes gradual muscle wasting, requiring consistent physical activity and specialized high-protein nutrition to slow deterioration – Khalid claims the UK prison service has systematically failed to meet his documented medical needs for months.

Since being placed in 23-hour-a-day cell lockdown last October, Khalid says his mobility has declined sharply. What began as gradual weakness has progressed to a total loss of the ability to walk, forcing him to crawl through the prison to access medication, legal appointments, and family visits. In an interview with Middle East Eye (MEE) conducted through an intermediary, he described the humiliation of crawling past dozens of fellow inmates, saying staff treat him like a wounded animal rather than a human being entitled to dignity.

Multiple failures in providing even basic adaptive equipment have compounded his condition. Khalid submitted repeated requests for a custom wheelchair, and even after a prison physiotherapist formally approved his need for the device on March 14, the prison only issued an ill-fitting chair two weeks later. The first wheelchair provided was too large to fit through his cell door or narrow prison corridors, leaving Khalid to crawl between his bed and toilet – a journey that can take up to an hour to complete. For more than 20 weeks, the prison also ignored requests for a shower chair, leaving him unable to bathe for nearly five months.

Worse still, prison staff have cited internal health and safety rules to refuse any physical assistance to Khalid, and have barred fellow inmates from helping him. Staff cannot push his wheelchair, lift him, or support him with basic daily tasks, he says. During a facility-wide fire evacuation on April 23, Khalid was left locked in his cell alone while all other prisoners were moved to safety. Even after multiple requests, staff have refused to bring his daily medication to his cell, forcing him to crawl to the medication collection point regardless of his pain or mobility limits.

Khalid added that prison staff, including a member of the facility’s medical team, have repeatedly accused him of faking his condition’s rapid deterioration, despite existing medical documentation confirming his diagnosis and progression. Over three months, he has only been seen by a doctor three times, and has missed two critical neurology appointments – one scheduled for April 7, which he was unable to attend because the prison failed to provide a wheelchair that could transport him to the clinic. Existing medical evidence submitted to courts confirms his condition has worsened dramatically since entering custody, directly linking the decline to his poor detention conditions.

In April, Justice Cheema-Gubb denied Khalid’s most recent bail application, ruling that while there were legitimate concerns about the timeliness and quality of his care, his condition could still be managed in a custodial setting. The judge ordered that a copy of her ruling be sent to prison leadership, with instructions to urgently address the gaps in care identified in the medical evidence and conduct regular reviews. However, Khalid’s solicitor Laura O’Brien says little has changed in the weeks since the ruling.

O’Brien told MEE that the full set of Khalid’s medical records were shared with the prison immediately after his remand, to help staff understand the needs of his progressive condition. “Despite incontrovertible medical evidence that he has a progressive genetic condition, and that it is getting worse, there has been a continued suggestion that he’s putting it on,” she said. O’Brien explained that prison officials have claimed they do not need to provide a full-time wheelchair because they have seen Khalid walking short distances, but they fail to understand that even small amounts of walking causes permanent micro-tear damage to his muscles that his condition prevents him from recovering from.

“Those in a custodial setting have a right to be treated fairly and with dignity as much as anyone else,” O’Brien said. “With inadequate care from the prison, the damage could be significant if his medical needs, including being provided with a wheelchair, accessible spaces to shower, use of the toilet and access to physiotherapy, are not met.”

In a minor update this week, the prison replaced the oversize wheelchair with a smaller model that can navigate prison corridors, though it still does not fit inside his cell. Prison officials have also finally issued a shower chair and ordered a new custom-sized wheelchair. O’Brien said the legal team welcomed the small steps but hopes further delays will not force Khalid to continue fighting for basic care.

Khalid says that while he remains mentally resilient, he lives in constant pain and has begun experiencing breathing difficulties as the muscle wasting progresses to his arms. “My arms are beginning to waste away, which will stop me from even being able to operate my own wheelchair,” he said. The situation has also placed enormous strain on his family, who managed his condition carefully for nearly a decade after his 2014 diagnosis. His mother Shabana told MEE that during a recent visit, he showed her his legs, which had withered to the point of looking like “a skeleton with skin hanging off” – a sight she described as heartbreaking.

Khalid was one of eight Palestine Action-linked prisoners who held a hunger strike last winter to protest poor detention conditions, ending the action in January. MEE reached out to the UK Ministry of Justice for comment on the allegations but did not receive a response ahead of publication.

On May 2, hundreds of angry demonstrators gathered at the Ndholo Kusumo Islamic girls’ boarding school in Tlogosari village, Central Java, to confront the institution’s 58-year-old founder and caretaker Kiai Ashari. Brandishing banners with slogans including “Women are not sexual objects” and “The Predator,” the crowd shouted insults at Ashari as local police escorted him off the property. The longtime school leader stands accused of years of sexual abuse against dozens of his female students, most of whom are low-income orphans.

This shocking allegation is not an isolated incident in Indonesia. It has sparked nationwide public outrage and pulled back the curtain on deep-rooted systemic gaps that allow sexual abuse to thrive in the country’s network of independent Islamic boarding schools. Though most witnesses who initially spoke out against Ashari have since retracted their statements, one survivor has formally filed a police complaint, and her legal team says as many as 50 other girls may have been victimized.

“Based on the victim’s account, the number of victims ranges from 30 to 50 children,” Ali Yusron, the attorney representing the complainant, told the BBC. “I am representing one victim, but the unfolding legal process confirms many more were harmed. One survivor’s courage has brought the full scope of these abuses to light.”

Authorities first named Ashari as a suspect on April 28. Police initially claimed on May 4 that he had not yet been taken into custody but assured the public he would not attempt to flee. Ashari contradicted that assurance hours later, slipping out of the Pati regency and traveling across Java to Bogor, Jakarta, and Solo before law enforcement intercepted him on the night of May 6 at a mosque in Wonogiri, Central Java.

Pati Police Chief Jaka Wahyudi confirmed the allegations against Ashari on May 7, detailing that the surviving complainant was abused 10 times across different locations between February 2020 and January 2024. According to the official account, Ashari would enter the victim’s dorm room under the pretense of requesting a massage, then coerce her to remove her clothing and commit multiple indecent sexual acts, including unwanted touching, squeezing, and kissing. After the 10th assault, the victim finally disclosed the abuse to her father, who filed an official police report.

This is far from the first time Ashari has faced credible accusations of sexual abuse against his students. Court records and police investigations show the first allegations against him date back to 2022. “The victims are all female students, mostly attending intermediate religious school (MTs),” Ali explained. “Over three consecutive years, new victims were targeted as he cycled through students.”

In early 2024, Pati Police’s Women and Children’s Services Unit received new reports of sexual offenses against underage teenage students at the school, but many of those initial claims were later dropped after witnesses withdrew their statements. Chief Jaka told the BBC that the 2024 investigation faced significant roadblocks, with four separate victims choosing to retract their testimonies.

Chief Jaka explained: “The victims and their families said they wanted to resolve the matter privately and amicably. Many witnesses withdrew their statements out of concern for their children’s future safety and prospects in the community.” The case lay dormant for two years before investigators finally formally named Ashari as a suspect last month, and authorities are still working to identify and interview all potential victims.

Beyond the individual accusations against Ashari, the case has exposed a repeating pattern of abuse enabled by problematic teachings and weak oversight. Many perpetrators in these boarding schools manipulate students through false religious doctrine: Ashari, for example, convinced his female students he was a saint with supernatural powers, and a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad who deserved unquestioned obedience.

Imam Nahe’i, a member of the Nahdlatul Ulama (PBNU) Anti-Sexual Violence Unit (SAKA) and a former commissioner of Indonesia’s National Commission on Violence Against Women, told the BBC that most sexual abuse cases in Islamic boarding schools follow this same manipulative template. “Caretakers often spread teachings rooted in shamanism and mysticism, rather than rational religious doctrine,” he said. “Many claim to be spiritual guardians, and tell students if they disobey them, they will go to hell.”

Worse, Imam Nahe’i added, many boarding schools normalize inappropriate physical contact with students – including touching, hugging, and kissing – creating a culture that tolerates escalating sexual violence. He cited an ongoing case in Sumenep where abuse continued unchecked from 2017 until it was exposed only recently, proof that surrounding communities and school leaders have long turned a blind eye to harm. A longtime educator at a large Islamic boarding school himself, Imam Nahe’i said he found most of his fellow teachers do not even correctly understand what constitutes sexual violence.

“Many of them think sexual violence only counts if it involves penetration,” he explained. “If it doesn’t reach that point, they don’t see it as sexual violence – they just write it off as a sin, not a serious crime.”

The broader systemic failure also stems from a profound lack of government oversight. While Indonesia’s Ministry of Religious Affairs passed formal regulations in 2022 to address sexual violence in educational settings, most Islamic boarding schools are privately founded by independent religious leaders rather than operated by the state, making them far harder to regulate. Many fall through the cracks of existing oversight frameworks, creating barriers to reporting abuse and protecting vulnerable students. As Imam Nahe’i put it, existing national regulations simply do not have jurisdiction to enforce standards at these independent institutions.

“To create clear binding regulations and dedicated task forces for Islamic boarding schools, the Ministry of Religion needs to prioritize this issue urgently,” he said. “On top of that, supervision of newly established private boarding schools from both the ministry and local communities needs to be far stricter.”

In response to the latest scandal, authorities have taken immediate action against Ndholo Kusumo, which first received its operating permit in 2021 and hosted 252 enrolled students before the allegations broke. The school has been shut down, all students have been sent to temporary housing or to their families, and the Ministry of Religious Affairs has permanently revoked the institution’s operating license. The ministry has confirmed that displaced students – particularly the orphaned students who make up a large share of Ashari’s alleged victims – will be able to continue their education via online learning or transfer to other accredited boarding schools.

Basnang Said, Director of Islamic Boarding Schools at the Ministry of Religious Affairs, explained that the immediate closure was intended to let authorities prioritize the criminal investigation while protecting students and maintaining public order. New student admissions at the school are suspended indefinitely until all institutional reforms to child protection, student care, and governance are completed and independently audited. If the school fails to meet mandatory safety standards, its deactivation will become permanent.

The ministry has also issued new nationwide guidance calling for any boarding school caretaker or educator accused of sexual abuse to be immediately removed from their post and evicted from school grounds. All Islamic boarding schools across Indonesia have been ordered to hire new teaching and care staff that meet strict standards of moral integrity, and are prepared to provide 24-hour supervised care for all enrolled students.