Jerusalem24 – Israeli prison authorities are transfering Palestinian-French human rights lawyer Salah Hammouri into solitary confinement, the Justice for Salah campaign announced yesterday.
The campaign announced on their Twitter account that Hammouri would be transferred to a cell of two meters by two, with no windows, a thin mattress, and a primitive toilet.
The transfer to solitary confinement also includes a prohibition on keeping books, a notebook, or family photos.
It was not immediately clear whether the transfer is related to a mass hunger-strike Hammouri and another 29 Palestinian administrative detainees began on 25 September, protesting their arbitrary detention.
🚨Alert: HRD Salah Hammouri, on hunger strike since 25 Sep is being punitively moved into solitary confinement; 2×2 sqm cell, no windows & 10 cm mattress w/ a primitive toilette. Not allowed to take books, a notebook or family photos, Salah is already in pain! #JusticeforSalah pic.twitter.com/nx73JVmswH
— JusticeforSalah (@JusticeforSalah) September 28, 2022
“Salah is already in pain!”
The Israeli prison authorities have renewed Hammouri’s arbitrary detention (administrative detention) on 5 September for an additional three months. According to the campaign, the decision was issued hours before his last detention order was supposed to end.
The new order extends his detention until 4 December.
The campaign calls for immediately releasing Hammouri; ending all threats of deportation against him; ending all ID revocation and deportation policies in Jerusalem; and ceasing all harassment of Hammouri and permitting him and his family to live freely in Jerusalem.
37-year-old Hammouri, a Palestinian-French Jerusalemite and lawyer with Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association and a father of two, has been in administrative detention since 7 March this year. An Israeli military court sentenced him to administrative detention after accusing him of endangering “security in the region.”
He has spent a total of nearly nine years in Israeli jails spanning separate detention periods. Hammouri was also denied entry into the occupied West Bank for more than two years, and his permanent residency status in Jerusalem, his city of birth, was stripped away by Israeli authorities on 18 October 2021.
Administrative detainees are held without charge or trial on the basis of secret evidence neither they nor their lawyers are allowed to see, for periods of up to six months and indefinitely renewable. There are currently around 740 Palestinian administrative detainees held by Israel.
More than 45 organizations, unions, and institutions undersigned a joint statement in support of Hammouri was shared today, the statement calls for the “immediate release and demand Israel rescind the decision to revoke his Jerusalem residency based on “secret evidence.” And “condemn and reject the arbitrary measures taken by the Israeli occupation forces against human rights defender and lawyer at Addameer, violating its obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law.”
The statement highlights harmful actions taken against Hammouri and a set of demands calling for international action for the release of the prisoner.
