Amnesty campaigns for Palestinian detainee

Global human rights group Amnesty International are campaigning for Khader Adnan, a Palestinian detained by Israeli authorities for allegedly being affiliated with the Islamic Jihad movement. Adnan, a baker, is on a potentially fatal hunger strike. "The Israeli authorities must release a Palestinian detainee or charge him with a recognisable criminal offence and promptly try him," Amnesty said on Monday amid fears the man could die in detention after more than 50 days on hunger strike. The 33-year-old was arrested on 17 December last year at his home in the village of Arrabe near Jenin in the occupied West Bank, after Israeli security forces burst into his home in the early hours of the morning. Adnan's hunger strike prompted demonstrations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and last week more Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails announced a hunger strike in solidarity.   On Wednesday a military court conducted a review of Adnan’s case but the judge has yet to announce the outcome. “For years Israel has been using administrative detention to lock up Palestinian activists without charge or trial, said Ann Harrison, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East. “Military commanders can renew the detention orders repeatedly, so in effect detainees can be held indefinitely. The process violates their right to a fair trial which is guaranteed by international law Israel is obliged to uphold.” Adnan, who is also a post-graduate student, has been on hunger strike since 18 December in protest against his ill-treatment, the conditions of his detention, and the policy of administrative detention. The Israeli military commander in the West Bank imposed a four-month administrative detention order on him in January. The baker has been hospitalised since December 30 as his health deteriorated. He has not been allowed any family visits and the Israeli authorities have since moved him to various different hospitals around the country. He was transferred to Ziv hospital in northern Israel on Sunday, in a move which his lawyers believe is intended to add further pressure on him, including by making it harder for his lawyers and family to visit him. “The Israeli authorities must release Khader Adnan and other Palestinians held in administrative detention, unless they are promptly charged with internationally recognizable criminal offences and tried in accordance with international fair trial standards,” Ann Harrison added. Administrative detention, a procedure under which detainees considered a threat to Israeli security are held without charge or trial for periods of up to six months, can be renewed indefinitely. No criminal charges are filed against administrative detainees and there is no intention of bringing them to trial. Detainees are held on the basis of “secret evidence” which the Israeli military authorities claim cannot be revealed for security reasons. This “secret evidence” is supposedly not made available to detainees or their lawyers, and detainees cannot challenge the reasons for their detention. According to Israel’s prison service some 307 Palestinians were being held in administrative detention on December 31 last year. Twenty-one members of the Palestinian Legislative Council are currently being held in administrative detention.