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Urgent Appeal – Palestinian Child in Administrative Detention

Vendredi, 13 août 2010 - 6h58 AM

Friday 13 August 2010

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Emad Al-Ashhab, 17, was arrested by the Israeli military on 21 February 2010 at the Container Checkpoint between Bethlehem and Ramallah.

In an affidavit given to Addameer attorney Anan Odeh, Emad reported that during the transfer to an undisclosed detention center the Israeli soldiers covered his face with a woolen bag and beat him with a stick all over his body while both his hands and feet remained shackled. The soldiers also burnt his hand with cigarettes while they tightened the shackles around his wrists. Emad was interrogated for five days at Ofer Military Base near Ramallah. Officers from the Israeli Security Agency (ISA) questioned him during interrogation sessions about his political affiliations, but Emad denied all of the interrogators’ suspicions.

Under the Israeli military orders that govern the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT), membership in an organization – be it a political party or a charitable organization – that is declared illegal by the Israeli military commander is considered an offense. However, Emad has never been charged with any offense, and no evidence supporting the interrogators’ allegation has been disclosed to Emad or his lawyer.

On the fifth day of his interrogation, Emad was handed his first administrative detention order, informing him that he would be held without charge or trial. Since then, his administrative detention order was renewed twice and is now set to expire on 3 November 2010. Emad has now been held in administrative detention for over
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Administrative detention is a procedure that allows the Israeli military to hold detainees indefinitely on secret evidence without charging them or allowing them to stand trial. In the occupied Palestinian West Bank, the Israeli army is authorized to issue administrative detention orders against Palestinian civilians on the basis of Military Order 1591. This order empowers military commanders to detain an individual for up to six months renewable periods if they have “reasonable grounds to presume that the security of the area or public security require the detention.” On or just before the expiry date, the detention order is frequently renewed. This process can be continued indefinitely.

More information about Emad’s case is available at the following link: http://addameer.info/?p=1772