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Press release
Israeli occupying forces place Gazan in administrative detention
Date: 24 March 2002
Ref: 45/2002
Israeli occupying forces last week transferred a Gazan to administrative detention for the second time in 20 days. Administrative detention is a special procedure used by Israeli occupying forces that allows them to detain Palestinians by military decree for indefinitely renewable periods of six months without charge or trial.
PCHR learned yesterday that Riyadh Sadi Abdul Hamid Ayyad, 28, from Gaza city was transferred to administrative detention on 17 March by order of the Israeli army commander in the Gaza strip. Ayyad was kidnapped by undercover Israeli soldiers on 1 January 2002 while on his way to work at a slaughterhouse in Gaza city. He was taken to the Israeli settlement of Netzarim, outside Gaza city, and then transferred to Ashkelon prison inside Israel.
Ayyad was interrogated by Israeli security personnel in Ashkelon for more than 70 days, during which he was subject to torture and ill-treatment. Ayyad was permitted to sleep only 22 hours during one 20-day period and was deprived of access to attorneys for the first 50 days of his interrogation. He has not confessed to any accusations. On 17 March, the Israeli army commander in the Gaza strip issued a military order transferring Ayyad to an indefinitely renewable 6-month period of administrative detention from 17 March to 16 September 2002. Ayyad’s lawyers were not informed of the order until yesterday, six days after it was issued.
The order to transfer Ayyad is the second of its kind for a resident of the Gaza strip in 20 days. On 25 February, the Israeli military commander in the Gaza strip ordered the transfer of Ali Farraj Abu Juraida, 26, to an indefinitely renewable six-month period of detention, from 27 February to 26 August 2002.
Israel’s administrative detention policy is implemented in a manner that fails to meet minimum standards of judicial process, including rights to a fair trial, adequate legal representation, rules of evidence, or knowledge of charges. Israeli forces have held some Palestinians in administrative detention for years without trial or charge. Moreover, the confinement of Palestinians from the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) in prisons inside Israel violates Articles 49 and 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibit the transfer of detainees and other protected persons out of occupied territories, and is a grave breach (war crime) under Article 147. Approximately 40 Palestinians are currently being held in administrative detention.
PCHR is deeply concerned about the ongoing use of administrative detention orders during the al-Aqsa Intifada, in continuation of a practice that has been employed against thousands of Palestinians from the OPT over the years. PCHR calls upon the international community to pressure Israel to stop the policy of administrative detention, and to demand the immediate release of Palestinian political prisoners detained inside Israel.
