Palestinian Author confined under administrative detention

Wednesday May 07, 2008 03:49

by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC News

The Ofer Israeli military sentenced a Palestinian writer from Al Yamoun village, near the northern West Bank city of Jenin, to six months under administrative detention without any charges.

The Ahrar Center for Detainees’ Studies reported that the prison administration responded to a request by the prosecution to keep author Ibrahim Abu Al Haija under administrative detention as “he resembles danger to the Israeli public”, according to the prosecution.

The judge then decided to sentence Abu Al Haija to six months under administrative detention orders.

The lawyer of Abu Al Haija demanded the court to reveal the “secret file” against his client and stated that the detainee and his lawyer have the right to know on what basis the detainees is being imprisoned.

Israel inherited the administrative detention from the British Mandate. A detainee imprisoned under administrative detention cannot know what charges are being filed against him, and the prison authority reserves “ its right to renew it as often as it wishes” without legal basis and without informing the lawyer or the detainee of the basis of this renewal.

In a recent report, the Palestinian Prisoner Society reported that currently there are nearly 9500 Palestinian detainees imprisoned by Israel. 900 detainees, including eight children, are imprisoned under administrative detention order.

Israel is currently holding captive 350 children and 81 women, including two underage female detainees.

It is worth mentioning that currently there are 1000 detainees who are sick, 50% of them need surgeries, and 32 are currently at the Al Ramla prison hospital which lacks the basic medical equipment.

Since 1967, 195 detainees died in Israeli prisons due to medical negligence and torture, including 19 who died during the Al Aqsa Intifada.