World Bulletin/News Desk

An Egyptian court on Wednesday turned down a request to release a detained activist whose health has deteriorated due to 263-day hunger strike, a judicial source has said.

The source said the court had refused to release activist Mohamed Sultan, the son of Muslim Brotherhood leader Salah Sultan, despite the noticeable deterioration of his health condition.

It was the third time that the court refused to release Sultan in less than a month.

The court also refused to release the young man, who also carries U.S. citizenship, on September 23. Last Wednesday, it declined to release him yet again.

Sultan's lawyers had earlier demanded his release, citing their client's failing health, but the court refused the request, adjourning trial proceedings to next week.

Sultan is accused, along with 51 co-defendants, including Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Badie, of forming what came to be known as the "Rabaa Operations Room" during a sit-in last year in support of ousted president Mohamed Morsi.

The authorities accuse Sultan and his co-defendants of steering the actions of the Muslim Brotherhood, the group from which Morsi hails, with the aim of challenging state authorities.

An emaciated Sultan arrived to court Wednesday in an ambulance from which he was carried into the courtroom on a hospital stretcher.

His father, who is being tried in the same case, asked judges to release him, saying they would be held responsible for any further deterioration of his son's health.

Sultan's lawyer, Maha Youssef, said his client had only spoken with difficulty, adding that he would be moved to a prison hospital from a state-run hospital where he has been receiving treatment since early October.

Sultan, who was arrested on August 27 of last year, has staged the longest hunger strike in the history of Egypt's prisons, according to his Facebook page, which adds that Sultan started his hunger strike on January 26.