[uruknet.info] Illegality of Administrative Detention

Palestinian Minister of Prisoners’ Affairs, Issa Qaraqe, and a delegation from the ministry visited the house of the prisoner Ahmad Nabhan Da’san Saqer, 47, in Askar refugee camp in Nablus, who was arrested in 2008, and sentenced to administrative prison.

The prisoner Ahmad Saker is considered to be the oldest prisoner in the Israeli administrative detention: he was arrested three times in a row, which makes the number of the years he spent in Israeli prisons 12 years.

Prisoners’ Unknown Enemy:

Qaraqe who met the Prisoner’s family said that the administrative detention is illegal and it is issued for political reasons, without any specific charges. It is also considered to be the Prisoners unknown enemy that violates their humanity; the prisoners would not know when they would be released, due to the continuous renewal of the arrest, and under the Israeli Security Services’ decisions.

Psychological war:

The house of the Prisoner’s Ahmad Saker said that Ahmad’s detention was as a psychological battle for his family and children; who wait for him to come back after his detention period ends, but would be surprised that their father’s detention was renewed every time.

She also said that the administrative detention is dangerous as it presents the prisoner to the military court without defence, neither from the prisoner himself nor from a lawyer.

Ahmad Interrupts the Court:

In January 1, 2012, Ahmad Saker has interrupted the administrative appeal court, for which the court issued him another three months in detention. He also said that standing in court gives a sort of legitimacy to it; a cover for the administrative detention law, which is very dangerous. The presence of the prisoners and lawyers in courts is not important, because they have no role against of the so-called “the secret file”.

20 Thousand Administrative Detentions Decisions since 2000:

280 prisoners are still in the Israeli prisons. The Israeli authorities have issued 20 thousand detention orders since 2000, including children, women and Palestinian senators.

The administrative detention decisions are issued by the military judge of the region.

The Palestinians are to be judged in military courts, which violate the fair trial principles, which are approved on, legally and internationally. Most of the prisoners who were sentenced to administrative detention are in Ofra and Maggido military prisons for men, and Hasharon prison for women.

State above Law:

Israel is the only state in the world that still operates with the administrative detention law, which was issued in the British Emergency Law in 1945. Israel violates the international standards and human rights by applying the administrative detention, which is internationally banned.

Israel also violates the fourth Geneva Convention which insists on the civilians’ safeties who are under the Israeli occupation, and criminalize the abusive procedures; such as the unfair trial and its violation for the international law, by detaining the administrative prisoners inside Israel’s borders, while the international law warns from transferring or detaining the prisoners outside the Occupied Territories.

PNN