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Al Mezan Welcomes the Release of Journalist Mohamed Ouathi and Calls on the Palestinian National Authority to Bring his Kidnappers to Justice

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23 August 2005 |Reference 57/2005

On Monday 22 August, kidnapped French journalist Mohamed Ouathi was released, and presented him at a police station, apparently unharmed.
Ouathi had been held for a week, longer than in any previous kidnapping of a foreign national.
He was kidnapped outside a hotel in Gaza City, while standing with several of his colleagues from French television channel 3.
During the week in which Ouathi was held, no information about his captors or their motives was made available.
Information about Ouathi’s wellbeing was also not available.
While Al Mezan welcomes Ouathi’s release, it urges the Palestinian National Authority to act immediately to bring his captors to justice.
The Center is pleased that Ouathi appears to be physically unharmed, but his release and safety must mark the beginning of an effective investigation that results in his kidnappers standing trial.
Ouathi’s kidnapping is only the most recent in a series of abductions of foreigners in Gaza.
These kidnappings, further, are only a part of the overall current deterioration of the rule of law in the Gaza Strip.
It is thus absolutely imperative that the Palestinian National Authority immediately arrest those responsible for Ouathi’s kidnap and try them in a court of law for their crime.
Ouathi’s release must not serve to absolve his kidnappers of their responsibility for their actions.
The Center believes that only through an active demonstration of respect for the rule of law by the PNA itself, will other groups in Gaza comes to respect the law.
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