Mumia Abu-Jamal in ICU After “Medical Emergency,” Say Supporters [UPDATE]

Naturally, some are calling it an "abduction."

UPDATE: New details have been released about Mumia Abu-Jamal’s hospitalization. For the full story, go here.

ORIGINAL:

On the same day that a federal judge heard arguments about the “mental anguish” law being challenged on First Amendment grounds by Mumia Abu-Jamal, among others, the convicted cop killer has been hospitalized, according to his supporters.

According to Noelle Hanrahan, a friend of Abu-Jamal and PrisonRadio.org director, the prisoner was taken to the intensive care unit of Schuylkill Medical Center in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, at 1 p.m. on Monday afternoon. The hospital is about 10 miles from SCI-Mahanoy, where Abu-Jamal is incarcerated.

In an email alert, Hanrahan wrote that Abu-Jamal experienced an unspecified “medical emergency” and encouraged supporters to call the superintendent of the prison to insist that Abu-Jamal’s wife be allowed to visit him. She later explained that two supporters learned of the condition when they went to visit Abu-Jamal at the prison and received information that he had been hospitalized.

Department of Corrections press secretary Susan McNaughton said that the DOC does not comment on inmate hospitalizations or medical conditions. And the hospital itself said they had no Mumia Abu-Jamal or Wesley Cook (his given name) in their system but that this wouldn’t be atypical for certain patients.

Meanwhile, blog Serve the People Philly, which we’re going to assume always leans toward the pro-Mumia side of things, characterizes his transport to the hospital as an “abduction,” and claims that Abu-Jamal is on an insulin drip.

Abu-Jamal was sentenced to death in 1982 for the 1981 murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner. After years of appeals and legal battles, he was removed from death row in 2012 and is serving a life sentence.

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