Israel frees Palestinian clown after nearly two-year detention without charge
Middle East Eye | Jacob Burns | Thursday 31 August 2017
▻http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-frees-palestinian-clown-after-nearly-two-year-detention-withou
WEST BANK, Palestine - It was a gift just in time for Eid – and a gift of the best kind. After nearly two years in an Israeli prison without charge or trial, Palestinian clown Mohammed Abu Sakha, was released on Wednesday and returned to his family.
A group of friends from the Palestinian Circus School, where he used to work, met him at a checkpoint in the south of the occupied West Bank and then took him to his home in Jenin.
Abu Sakha, 26, told Middle East Eye that he had mixed feelings about being released from administrative detention, a controversial measure under which Israel detains suspects without trial for periods of several months.
“I’m happy to be released … but I know that there are many people in the same position as me still inside, so I’m sad at the same time,” said Abu Sakha.
“The people inside have a very difficult situation. There are always searches, in the morning, at midnight. There’s no possibility of a personal life inside.”
Abu Sakha was arrested at an Israeli checkpoint on 14 December 2015, and held since then under a series of administrative orders.