Ref: 25/2008
Date: 03 April 2008
Time: 11:30 GMT
PCHR Condemns Police Attack against One of Its Field Workers and a Number of Journalists in Gaza
PCHR strongly condemns attacking a PCHR field worker and two journalists by the police of the dismissed Palestinian government on Thursday morning, and the confiscation of media materials from them while they were in a work mission in al-Zawaida village in the central Gaza Strip. PCHR calls for investigating the attack and brining its perpetrators to justice. PCHR emphasizes that the rights to freedom of expression and to receive and impart information are ensured by the Palestinian Basic Law and international human rights instruments.
According to Waleed Zaqqout, 45, a PCHR field worker, at approximately 09:00 on Thursday, 3 April 2008, he went to the English Cemetery at the entrance of al-Zaida village to gather information about an explosion occurred inside the cemetery caused by unknown persons. He listened to the testimony of the cemetery’s guard, Mohammed ‘Awaja, who lives near the cemetery and photographed the scene. A number of police officers were also in the area to investigate the attack, and 2 Reuters reporters, Hisham Zaqqout and Nihad Shana’a, were reporting on the attack. When Zaqqout was about to leave the cemetery, a police officer stopped him, and asked him whether he photographed. The police officer took Zaqqout’s camera and confiscated its memory card. He also wrote down Zaqqout’s name and ordered him to refer to a police station in Deir al-Balah town in the central Gaza Strip. Police officers also confiscated video tapes from journalists Zaqqout and Shana’a and ordered them too to refer to the same police station. At approximately 11:30, Zaqqout and a PCHR lawyer, Shareef Abu Nassar, went to the police station in Deir al-Balah to retrieve the memory card of the camera, but the police informed them that the case was transferred to the Attorney General’s office. Zaqqout and Abu Nassar went to the office, and a staff member of the office phoned a senior police officer, who informed them that they must refer to the police again.
At approximately 04:00 on Thursday, unknown persons blew up a monument in the English Cemetery in al-Zawaida village.
PCHR strongly condemns this attack against one of its field workers and the two journalists, and:
1) Calls for providing protection for human rights defenders and journalists to be able to carry out their work freely and enjoy their rights to freedom of expression and to receive and impart information.
2) Asserts that the rights to freedom of expression and the right to receive and impart information are ensured by the Palestinian Basic Law and international human rights instruments.
3) Points out that the police must investigate crimes and search for their perpetrators to bring them to justice, rather than pursuing journalists and human rights defenders and preventing them from doing their work.
4) Calls for brining back the memory card and video tapes which were illegally confiscated by the police.
5) Calls for arresting and bringing to justice the perpetrators of this attack against the journalists and PCHR field worker.
6) Strongly condemns the attack against the English Cemetery, which is part of the state of lawlessness in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and calls upon concerned authorities to search for its perpetrators and bring them to justice.
