Israeli Military Prosecution: The Last Administrative Detention Order for Matar was by Mistake

The Israeli military judge at Ofer military court, decided today during an appeal session, 11 December 2018, to cancel the last administrative detention order against Tariq Abu Matar (29 years old). According to Addameer's lawyer, the military judge stated that this administrative detention order was illegal. 

Also, the military prosecution stated that the issuance of the last administrative detention order on 30 November 2018 was by mistake and it should be canceled. This means that Matar has spent the last 11 days under administrative detention because of a mistake made by the military prosecution and the military intelligence department. This mistake though was confirmed on 5 December 2018 when the military judge Rony Dalomy confirmed the detention order and stated that there is a necessity to keep Matar in detention despite the fact that there were no new secret materials presented by the prosecution against him. 

Previously, on 28 October 2018, during an appeal session, a military judge gave Matar a decision stating that he is serving his last administrative detention order. So, Matar was supposed to be released on 30 November 2018 after spending 16 months under administrative detention. However, on the same release day, Matar received another four-month administrative detention order. 

Addameer considers the issuance of a new administrative detention order against Matar and confirming this order without having any new updates in his secret file to be arbitrary and illegal. In fact, this administrative detention order comes against a decision by the high court in the case of Abed al-Fatar A'mleh (case number 2320/98). This case states that there cannot be any renewals of administrative detention orders after ruling his with his last one in a court. A renewal, in this case, is only allowed in two circumstances, first having updates in the detainee's secret files or in case the general conditions makes a security necessity to keep the detainee in detention. Neither of those two conditions is applicable to Tariq Matar which makes his last renewal illegal even according to the Israeli military laws. 

The case of Tariq Matar just shows us how the Israeli military prosecution, military intelligence and the court system itself treat Palestinians in a careless way without actually taking into consideration that they are human beings. Those measures violate The Fourth Geneva Convention Art 78 and Art 66 in specific.