After arresting Mr.
Adnan al-Hajjar, Coordinator of the Legal Aid Unit at Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights, which took place at Rafah border passage while on the way back from Egypt yesterday, the Israeli continue to hold Mr.
al-Hajjar in prison in Ashkelon.
Israeli Radio Stations and Maariv Newspaper today linked Mr.
al-Hajjar with Usama Bin Ladin and claimed that he arrived in the Occupied Palestinian Territories in order to establish the infrastructure for Bin Ladin’s organization.
Al-Mezan Center stresses that the last time in which Mr.
al- Hajjar left the Palestinian Territories was in 1999, and the purpose of that trip was to register for doctoral studies.
In addition, Mr.
al-Hajjar is a mature and intellectual person who is known to respect the principles of democracy and human dignity; something that contradicts the Israeli claims regarding him.
Moreover, also today the Israeli newspaper the Jerusalem Post misleadingly described Mr.
al-Hajjar as a new comer to the Palestinian Territories, ignoring that he has been abroad (outside the Territories) for only 20 days and that he is a resident of the Gaza Strip.
Al-Hajjar was part of a party that left the Gaza Strip on the 5th of April to attend a training course on Legislative Formulation organized by the Arab Research and Training Center (ARTC) in Cairo as part of a program on Strengthening the Capacity of the Palestinian Legislative Council sponsored by Associates in Rural Development (ARD).
The courses lasted from the 7th April to 22nd April and were financed by USAID.
The director of the Program at ARD has declared that he shares the responsibility of bringing Mr.
al-Hajjar safely back to his country and has been in touch with the USAID representative in Tel Aviv.
The latter has made a series of attempts to get in touch with the Israeli government but until now has received no response.
ARD considers that this arrest is a way to pressure and disturb human rights work.
Furthermore ARD states that there is no indication that Mr.
al-Hajjar has engaged in any illegal activity and demands his immediate release.
We, at al-Mezan center, are afraid that his arrest was motivated by the fact that he is a human rights lawyer and profoundly concerned that he will be subjected to torture since this is a widespread practice in Israeli prisons.
The fact that he is accused of being involved in violent activities increase the probability that Mr.
al-Hajjar is currently subject to the most severe and worst forms of torture.
It is worth mentioning that Israel is the only state in the world in which torture of prisoners is officially permitted.
Al-Mezan center perceives the incidence as a new form of the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people, and stresses that it is a highly dangerous act.
In addition, this act aims at creating pressure on the Palestinian Human Rights activists in order to prevent them from monitoring and documenting the Israeli violations to the Palestinian human rights; a role they have actively played since the outbreak of the Intifada on 29/9/2000.
This constitutes an Israeli attempt to limit the freedom of expression of the Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
We, at Al-Mezan Center, thank our friends for the solidarity they have shown, and call upon the international Human Rights organizations, particularly the International Red Cross society, and the international community to make every possible effort and exert pressure in order to immediately release Mr.
al-Hajjar.
END Please Write to:
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il Lieutenant-General Shaul Mofaz
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