Israeli court rejects appeal for hunger-striking journalist
Jan. 16, 2016 4:27 P.M. (Updated : Jan. 16, 2016 5:55 P.M.)
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — The Israeli military court of the Ofer prison in the occupied West Bank rejected an appeal to end the administrative detention of hunger-striking Palestinian prisoner Muhammad al-Qiq on Saturday.
Palestinian Minister of Prisoners’ Affairs Issa Qaraqe told Ma’an that the court ruled to maintain the six-month administrative detention period for al-Qiq, despite the continuation of a more than 50-day hunger strike by the prisoner.
Al-Qiq began the strike on Nov. 24, 2015, to protest his administrative detention, which allows Israel to hold him on secret evidence without charge for six-month intervals that can be renewed indefinitely.
Qaraqe said the court’s rejection of the appeal “proves intentions of revenge” by Israel against the Palestinian prisoner, referring to al-Qiq’s detention as arbitrary as Israeli prosecution had yet to press specific charges against him.
A lawyer for the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society, Jawad Boulos, told Ma’an earlier this week that the 33-year-old journalist has been held at the HaEmek Medical Center in Afula handcuffed to a hospital bed, and that he was in critical condition.
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50 prisonniers palestiniens détenus dans la prison de Nafha ont lancé une grève de la faim collective, pour protester contre les mauvais traitements, les transferts fréquents et les mauvaises conditions de détention ; depuis mardi soir, ils renvoient leurs repas. Les grévistes de la faim rejoignent six autres prisonniers palestiniens et arabes qui mènent déjà une grève de la faim individuelle dans les prisons israéliennes, pour protester contre leur détention abusive.