The attorney of Mumia Abu-Jamal, an incarcerated former Black Panther, recently told reporters that his client has been hospitalized without notification but prison officials will not tell him why, according to AP.

Attorney Bret Grote's claim that Abu-Jamal, 60, was rushed to a Pennsylvania hospital was confirmed by Philadelphia's Action News WPVI on Monday. He is reportedly in the critical care unit.

"Taking prisoners to outside hospitals is not standard operating procedure," Noelle Hanrahan, producer of Prison Radio, noted. "You have to be extraordinarily sick." As Phillymag.com reports, the hospital, Schuylkill Medical Center in Pottsville, Pa., is about 10 miles from SCI-Mahanoy, where Abu-Jamal is incarcerated.

Grote alleged that neither he nor his client's brother, Keith Cook, have been permitted to see him. Supporters of Abu-Jamal also told Democracy Now! that they too had been rejected.

"Upon arrival I was told I could not see him," Abu-Jamal’s longtime friend Johanna Fernández said. "We were told he was in diabetic shock and taken to the hospital."  

The Department of Corrections does not comment on inmate hospitalizations or medical conditions, according to DOC press secretary Susan McNaughton. 

Former death row inmate Abu-Jamal was sentenced to life in prison for the 1981 murder of white Philadelphia police Officer Daniel Faulkner.

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(Photo: Lisa Terry/Liaison Agency)