Islam Times - UN Official Calls on Israel to Release Akhras Immediately

Islam Times - Palestinian prisoner Maher Al-Akhras, 49, from Silat al-Dhahr town, south of Jenin in the occupied West Bank, entered his 90th consecutive day in his open hunger strike on Saturday, protesting his administrative detention.

The Muhjat Al-Quds Foundation said on Friday evening that the Israeli Supreme Court had canceled the decision of the Shin Bet and the Israeli Military Prosecutor's Office to transfer Akhras from Kaplan Hospital after an urgent application filed by his lawyer.

However, the Kaplan hospital administration decided not to keep Akhras in the hospital under the pretext that Akhras refuses treatment and refuses to cooperate with the medical staff, according to the Prisoners and Ex-prisoners Affairs Authority.

The Authority added that after the hospital’s decision, the occupation forces stormed Akhras’s room and violently moved him to the Prisons Department Hospital Marash in Ramle, pointing out that the occupation authorities decided to renew his administrative detention.

Michael Link, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in occupied Palestine, called on the Israeli regime to immediately release Akhras.

Link said in a statement on Friday that the Israeli police that arrested and detained Akhras did not present any convincing evidence in an open court to justify their claims that he poses a security risk.

Link said, “Mr. Akhras is now in a state of great weakness after he has been without food for 89 days. Recent visits by doctors to his hospital bed ... indicate that he is about to have major organ failure and some damage may be permanent.”

He called on Tel Aviv to release Akhras immediately if it was unable to provide convincing evidence at a high level that he had violated the laws. He also called for the abolition of its practice of administrative detention, the release of the current Palestinian detainees, and strict adherence to international law in implementing its security operations.

He urged the regime to end the practice of administrative detention because people can be detained indefinitely without trial and sometimes for years.

The UN rapporteur said, “Administrative detention is a curse in any democratic society that follows the rule of law. When a democratic state arrests and suspends a person, the person should be charged, evidence should be presented in a public trial, and full defense must be allowed, and an attempt should be made to convince an impartial judicial body of the allegations against him beyond any doubt.”

Akhras was arrested in July and the Israeli regime ordered his administrative detention for four months. He was arrested several times before during which he spent four years in total.