Speaker Of Palestine Parliament Receives Six Months Administrative Detention

Tuesday January 24, 2012 12:31 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

The Israeli Military Court at the Ofer Israeli prison, near the central West Bank city of Ramallah, decided to imprison the elected head of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), Dr. Aziz Dweik, to six months administrative detention, an illegal arbitrary imprisonment ruling made by a military court.

Dr. Aziz Dweik - Arabs48

On Sunday, a court was held to look into the possibility of placing him under administrative detention, without any charges officially filed against him.

Both Dr. Dweik and legislator Khaled Tafesh, from the southern West Bank city of Hebron, were taken prisoner on Friday.

Representing Dr. Dweik, Lawyer Fadi Al-Qawasmi stated that the court issued the arbitrary imprisonment order despite the fact that no charges were brought against his client.

The Palestinian Legislative Council slammed the Israeli court ruling against Dr. Dweik, and demanded the release of all elected legislators, ministers, and officials.

On Thursday at dawn, Israeli troops kidnapped legislator, Abdul-Jaber Foqaha, after breaking into his home in Ramallah. Soldiers confiscated documents, a mobile phone, and a computer that belong to the legislator.

On Sunday, Israeli troops broke into the International Red Cross headquarters in Jerusalem, and kidnapped two Palestinian members of parliament.

Khaled Abu Arafa and Mohammed Totah, both members of the political wing of the Hamas movement and elected MPs, were detained from the IRC headquarters, having spent over 18 months seeking refuge in the building following Israel's illegal revocation of their Jerusalem residency.

Israel is currently holding prisoner 26 elected Palestinians legislators.

The Hamas movement stated that Israel is acting on obstructing and foiling all efforts to create a national unity government, and wants to destroy any chances of Palestinian reconciliation.

ramallah | prisoners | news report saed at imemc dot org