Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights is shocked by the heinous murder of the Italian peace activist Vittorio Arrigoni.
Vittorio’s dead body was found in a leased house in North Gaza district at approximately 2am today.
Al Mezan expresses its condolences to Vittorio’s family and friends, and calls on Gaza Government to bring the murderers to justice.
  The Italian ISM activist had been kidnapped by members of a radical salaphi group in Gaza in the early evening yesterday, Thursday 14 April 2011.
The media reported that his kidnappers demanded that the authorities release members in the group.
According to a statement by the Ministry of Interior in Gaza, in which the Ministry condemned this crime, Vittorio’s body was found in an empty house in Gaza.
  Vittorio was an ISM member who came to Gaza on a Free Gaza Movement boat in 2008.
He has remained in Gaza since then.
He is widely known as a peace activist and human rights defender in the Gaza Strip.
He was among the activists who risked their lives to provide protection for fishermen in Gaza sea and farmers in the areas close to the border with Israel.
He was arrested with a group of fishermen and activists in the sea by the Israeli occupation forces and was deported.
But he returned to Gaza, which indicates his commitment to peace, justice and human rights, but also his willing to endure difficult conditions while promoting them.
  Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights condemns with the strongest terms the dreadful murder of Vittorio.
This crime represents a serious precedent in the Gaza Strip.
It is the first time an international peace activist is killed.
While incidents of kidnapping of international citizens; including peace activists, occurred during the period Gaza saw security deterioration in the middle of the previous decades, their lives were not threatened.
  Al Mezan expresses its deep grief for the loss of an activist’s life; a person who strived and fought for freedom and human rights in Palestine.
Al Mezan extends its condolences and solidarity with Vittorio’s family and friends.
  Al Mezan also expresses its shock by the murderers’ disregard to human life and the sacred protection attached to it by faiths and the principles of law and human rights.
Al Mezan calls on Gaza Government to pursue those who kidnapped and killed Vittorio and bring them to justice for their heinous crime and also for their assault on the Palestinian people and its integrity and values.
  End