Hanaa’ Shalabi, 30, has been on a hunger strike since 16 February 2012, the day on which she was arrested, in protest to re-arresting her by IOF, as she had been released in October 2011 in the context of the prisoners swap between the Palestinian resistance and IOF. She had served two years administrative detention in Israeli prison.
Since she started the hunger strike, the Israeli Prison Service refused her demands and rejected her release. She has been placed under administrative detention for a renewable 6-month period. In response to an appeal instituted by her lawyers, an Israeli court decided on 05 March 2012 to decrease the period by 50 days. Accordingly, Shalabi’s lawyers filed another appeal against this decision, which will be considered by an Israeli court today. In spite of these developments, Shalabi has continued the hunger strike demanding her immediate release and punishing the soldiers who violently beat her when she was arrested and transferred to Salem military court in the north of the West Bank.
During this period, Shalabi and her attorney have not been informed of the charges directed against him. The Israeli prosecution provided the court with the charges against Shalabi under the item of confidential information, which constitutes evidence of the arbitrariness of the way administrative detention policy is practiced by IOF against Palestinian detainees.
Shalabi has been detained in Hasharon female prison in the north of Israel under cruel conditions. A lawyer of Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, Mona Naddaf, who visited her two days ago, stressed that Shalabi’s heath conditions were deteriorating, and she was suffering from pains throughout the body, especially in the chest and the side.
Shalabi’s case highlights the conditions of more than 300 Palestinians who are currently placed under administrative detention in Israeli prisons and detention facilities, including the Speaker and 19 Members of the Palestinian Legislative Council. These actions are in violation of the right of a detainee to fair trial, including the right to receive appropriate defense and to be informed of charges against him. Administrative detention is applied by an administrative order only without referring to a court. It is applied under strictly confidential procedures that deprive a detainee and his/her attorney of knowing the charges or evidence against him/her, thus violating their right to provide adequate defense, in violation of the standards of a fair trial.
The three human rights organizations are concerned for the life of Hanaa’ Shalabi, who has been detained in Israeli prisons, and:
2.Call upon international human rights organizations and solidarity movements to intensify efforts to stop the practice of administrative detention by IOF, which violate the fundamental right to a fair trial.
3.Express utmost concern over the detention conditions of more than 5,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
