News
The Administrative detention of Palestinian circus trainer and performer Mohammad Abu Sakha has been renewed for an additional 6 months, from 12 December 2016 to 11 June 2017. Abu Sakha has been imprisonment in Israeli jails without charge or trial for a year. Addameer 's attorney Mahmoud Hassan represented Abu Sakha in a public hearing before the Supreme Court on 5 December, where he decided to withdraw the petition after the court stated that the “secret file” – which has reportedly not been updated since December 2015 – indicates that Abu Sakha “ still poses a threat to the security of the state.” Mohammad Abu Sakha was arrested on 14/12/2015 at around 4:00 pm while he was crossing...
The rearrested Palestinian youth activist Daoud Ghoul was ordered by an Israeli court to two additional days in interrogation on Friday, 9 December 2016. Israeli Forces rearrested Mr. Ghoul one week following his release. Occupation forces raided the house of Mr. Ghoul at 4:00 am and rearrested him after confiscating his personal belongings. Palestinian youth organizer, was released from the Israeli Gilboa prison on Sunday, 27 November after over 17 months of imprisonment.
The Administrative detention of Palestinian journalist and human rights defender Hasan Safadi, the Media Coordinator for Addameer, has been renewed for an additional 6 months, from 7 December 2016 to 8 June 2017. Administrative detention orders may be renewed indefinitely. Safadi’s administrative detention order is scheduled to be confirmed by a judge at a time set in the next 48 hours, making him one of approximately 720 Palestinians held without charge or trial under administrative detention. Administrative detention orders are indefinitely renewable and issued for one to six month periods at a time; some Palestinians have spent years at a time in administrative detention, on the basis of...
Zaki Fayeq Atta, from Deir Abu Mash'al, was arrested on 8 August 2016, while he was in a car that allegedly had Molotov inside it. Mr. Atta was initially accused of weapon possession, however, the judge decided that the charge list was not substantial to convict him. As a result, the prosecution placed him under administrative detention for four months as a punitive measure for not confessing to the claims within the charge list. On 7 December 2016, Mr. Atta's order was renewed proving the Israeli occupation's reliance on the policy of administrative detention when failing to provide sufficient evidence to convict detainees, in addition to using this arbitrary detention as a punitive...
Israeli prosecution requested the Magistrate Court in Jerusalem to delay release order of Palestinian youth activist Daoud Ghoul, arrested on 5 December 2016. The prosecution submitted an appeal to further hold Mr. Ghoul in detention. The appeal hearing was held today, 6 December 2016, at the District Court in Jerusalem, where the judge decided to extend the detention period of Mr. Ghoul for four additional days, claiming there has been a new development in interrogation. The judge’s decision came without taking into consideration the defense lawyer’s argument that there was no detention order for Mr. Ghoul in the first place. Israeli Forces rearrested Mr. Ghoul one week following his...
A petition hearing was held today at the Israeli High Court against the administrative detention of Mohammad Abu Sakha, the 25-year-old Palestinian circus trainer and performer imprisoned without charge or trial since 14 December 2015. At the court hearing, Addameer’s attorney Mahmoud Hassan decided to withdraw the petition, reporting that that the high court, after reviewing the secret file, decided that Abu Sakha still poses a threat to the security of the state despite failure of the prosecution to provide any new material since his detention in December 2015. It’s worth mentioning that the petition was submitted as a third review of the secret information on which Abu Sakha is being...
Israeli Forces rearrested youth activist Daoud Ghoul one week following his release. Occupation forces raided the house of Mr. Ghoul at 4:00 am and rearrested him after confiscating his personal belongings. Palestinian youth organizer, was released from the Israeli Gilboa prison on Sunday, 27 November after over 17 months of imprisonment. Ghoul, 33, the director of youth programs for the Health Work Committees and the Kanaan Network of Palestinian civil society organizations, has been subject to a series of repressive attacks since 2014. Mr. Al Ghoul is currently held in Al-Maskobyeh interrogation center in Jerusalem.
Addameer documentation unit finds that between 1 January 2016 and 30 November 2016, there were 1586 total administrative detention orders issued, among them 588 new orders and 998 renewed orders. During November 2016, the occupation authorities issued more than 111 administrative detention orders, including 32 new orders and 79 renewed orders. Administrative detention is the Israeli government policy which systematically holds Palestinians indefinitely on secret information without charge or trial.
Long-serving Nael Barghouti, 59, continues to be held despite having served his latest sentence of 30 months, which was issued based on secret information. An appeal was submitted by the prosecution on 25 November 2015, who seek to re-instate a previous life sentence on Mr. Barghouti. The military court is to provide an answer to the prosecution’s appeal by 17 December 2016. Mr. Barghouti faces the possibility of re-instatement of life sentence based on secret information. Today, an appeal has been lodged by Addameer to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. Mr. Barghouti was first arrested when he was 20 years old in April 1978. Barghouti was released as part of the Wafa Al-Ahrar...
Israeli Knesset has preliminarily approved a bill in a first reading on 14 November 2016 that would exempt Israeli intelligence and police from filming or recording interrogations sessions of suspected “terrorists”. Israeli government officials stated the move was taken to counter terrorism given the current unstable situation. Currently, all interrogation sessions in Israel must be recorded , but the Knesset suspended the law for security-related cases a couple of years ago. The new bill aims to turn the temporary legislation into a permanent law, exempting the intelligence and the police from having to record the interrogation sessions. Addameer considers the decision one that would...