Occupied Ramallah – 18 September 2013
Lawyer and human rights defender Anas Anise Hussein Barghouthi (30 years old) was arrested by the Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) on the evening of Sunday 15 September 2013, after IOF soldiers arrested him from a private vehicle at a military checkpoint between Bethlehem and Ramallah. His detention was extended for an additional five days by Ofer Military Court in his first hearing yesterday and he is currently being held without charge.
Adv. Barghouthi previously worked for Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association between 2009-2013, and is one of the first lawyers to defend Palestinian political prisoners that are arrested by the Palestinian Authority. He is also a prominent activist who works to support Palestinian prisoners arrested by the Occupation.
According to the head of the Legal Unit at Addameer, Mahmoud Hassan, Adv. Bargouthi is currently being held in a detention and interrogation center in Etzion settlement in the southern West Bank, where he is being held in inhumane conditions. In the first 36 hours of his detention, he was only given two meals, not allowed to shower, change his clothing or given any personal hygiene products.
Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association denounces the arbitrary arrest of Adv. Barghouthi, especially as it is in the greater context of the continued attack on Palestinian human rights defenders who are criminalized and convicted on trumped-up charges, or held under administrative detention without charge or trial.
Addameer calls for support from international and regional human rights organizations to put pressure on the occupying power for the immediate release of Adv. Barghouthi and to respect the protection of human rights defenders as according to the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders (1998).
"Human rights defenders" are formally defined as persons who work peacefully for any or all of the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Hassan clearly falls within the category, in that his activities are peaceful in nature and aimed at the promotion of human rights.