Caabu demands Khader Adnan release

UK advocacy group Caabu (The Council for Arab-British Understanding) has written to the British Government to urge them to demand that Israel release Khader Adnan. The 33-year-old baker from Jenin in the West Bank was given a four month “administrative detention order” on 8 January 2012, after he had been hospitalised on 30 December. In response to his arrest and imprisonment by Israeli authorities - without charge or trial -  Adnan began a hunger strike on 18 December 2011. Despite becoming too frail to move, he spent much of this time shackled to his bed. Adnan’s appeal of 13 February was rejected by the Israeli authorities on the grounds that the initial penalty based on secret evidence was “balanced”. As of December 31, 307 Palestinians were in Israeli ‘administrative detention’, including 21 elected members of the Palestinian Legislative Council. Caabu joined Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and other human rights organisations in calling for action to save Adnan’s life. Chris Doyle, Director of Caabu said: “Israel must release Khader Adnan or charge him with a crime. Israel’s routine practice of detention without charge or trial, based on secret evidence, must end. The British government and the world rightly demanded for the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit from illegal detention by Hamas, but it is entirely hypocritical to ignore the continuing imprisonment of hundreds of Palestinians in similar circumstances by Israel.” Caabu calls on the UK government to urgently intervene on Adnan’s behalf to safeguard his life and uphold his right to a fair trial.