En af dem er Amnestys samvittighedsfange, den nu 62-årige Ahmed Qatamesh, som har siddet bag lås og slå i to år uden nogen sinde at være anklaget; og han deler skæbne med mange andre – Sydafrikas apartheidstyre anvendte tilsvarende juridiske metoder.
On 21 April 2013, Palestinian Ahmed Qatamesh marked his second year in Israeli detention, without ever having been charged with a recognizable criminal offence or brought to trial, Amnesty International writes on its homepage.
Amnesty International is calling for his immediate and unconditional release as it believes he is a prisoner of conscience, detained (tilbageholdt) solely for the peaceful expression of his non-violent political beliefs.
He is one of some 160 Palestinians currently held by Israel under administrative detention orders (tilbageholdt uden rettergang).
According to Israeli NGO B’tselem there were 164 administrative detainees held by end of March 2013 which allow for indefinite (tids-ubegrænset) detention, on the basis of secret evidence which the military prose-cution (anklage-myndighed) withholds from the detainee and his or her lawyer, thus denying detainees the basic right to defend themselves.
Amnesty International is once again urging the Israeli government to stop the use of administrative detention and release all administrative detainees unless they are promptly charged with internationally recognizable criminal offences and tried in accordance with international fair trial standards, the NGO notes.
A Public speaker and writer
Ahmad Qatamesh is an academic, a public speaker and a writer on political and cultural affairs who has called for a one state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
There is no apparent reason to hold him, Amnesty International states. The NGO believes he is being held to suppress his views and to deter (afskrække) political activities by other Palestinian left-wing activists.
His current administrative detention expires on 28 April but could be renewed an indefinite number of times.
An appeal against the current order was dismissed by a military court following a hearing on 13 February. His lawyer appealed the refusal to the Israel High Court of Justice which but this was also rejected in April. No reason for refusal was given in either appeal.
His ordeal (prøvelser) began on 21 April 2011 when he was arrested from his brother’s house in Ramallah by Israeli security forces, at 2.00 am. When they did not find him at his family’s home, they broke down the neighbour’s searching for him.
His daughter said they ordered her at gunpoint to telephone him. He apparently gave the officers directions to his brother’s house. At no point did they attempt to search contents of either house.
“Poses a security threat”
Since then he has been questioned for a mere 10 minutes, by the Israel Security Agency (ISA).
They claim that he is a member of the political wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and poses a security threat.
He says he has not been involved with PFLP for 14 years though in the 1990s he was a political and intellectual supporter.
In June 2011 during an appeal against his detention before the military court he asked to be “give[n] … any information” they had against him.
He said, “I am under arrest now and do not know why … I do not pose a security risk. Do you think I am your enemy? What do you care if I think one democratic state is the solution? Would you like me to present you with a 100 Israelis that support this idea?”
His wife told Amnesty International that it would be easier for the family if her husband had been sentenced to three years’ imprisonment.
The nature of administrative detention means that detainees and their families live in a constant state of uncertainty: as each order expires (udløber) their hopes for release are frequently dashed as they are handed a fresh order.
Immense obstacles
In addition to being held without charge, Ahmad Qatamash, like other Palestinian detainees and prisoners, is subject to other punitive measures.
For example, only his daughter is able to visit him regularly – relatives who are residents of the occupied West Bank experience immense obstacles (forhindringer) in obtaining visiting permits to see their family members in detention.
In early 2013 he was transferred from Ofer prison in the occupied West Bank to Ramon prison in southern Israel. His daughter spent about 13 hours getting to and from Ramon prison on 22 April 2013 in order to spend just 45 minutes with him.
His wife told Amnesty International that he was transferred after protests broke out in prisons and detention centres in Israel when a 30-year-old Palestinian detainee – Arafat Jaradat – died in custody in suspicious circumstances in Megiddo prison on 23 February 2013.
Statements made to Amnesty International by Arafat Jaradat’s family and lawyer, lawyers who saw him in the military court before his death, and the report of the Palestinian forensic specialist present at his autopsy (obduktion /ligsyn) all raise serious concerns that his death may have been due to torture or other ill-treatment in Israeli custody.
Violates an international convention
Furthermore, Ahmad Qatamesh’s detention in Israel violates the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, which stipulates that detainees from the population of an occupied territory must be detained within that territory.
Ahmad Qatamesh is now 62 years old and his health is deteriorating (ned ad bakke) – he is suffering from undiagnosed ailments causing nausea (kvalme) and faintness, according to his wife.
His request to see an independent doctor has not been allowed by the prison authorities though the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners state that untried prisoners should within reason be allowed a visit and treatment by their own doctor.
The UN Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment say that detainees “have the right to request or petition (indsende begæring til) a judicial or other authority for a second medical examination or opinion.”
Background
Læs videre på
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE15/009/2013/en/d5a54d5d-c728-4a0e-b9bb-449bfa1016c0/mde150092013en.pdf
Yderligere oplysninger hos:
Kommunikationsmedarbejder Nora Rahbek Kanafani
Amnesty Danmark
Mobil 25 14 64 12 og e-mail: [email protected]
