Take action: New alert on imprisoned human rights defender Hasan Safadi

hasansafadiFront Line Defenders has issued an action alert for Hasan Safadi, the Palestinian journalist and human rights defender who works as the Arabic media coordinator for Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association. The organization works internationally to highlight the cases of human rights defenders at risk and confronting repression.

Safadi, 24, a Jerusalemite Palestinian, was ordered on Friday, 10 June to six months in administrative detention without charge or trial. He has been imprisoned since 1 May, when he was arrested by Israeli occupation forces as he crossed the Karameh bridge from Jordan to Palestine’s West Bank, while returning from an Arab youth conference in Tunisia. From 1 May until 10 June he was held under interrogation at al-Moskobiya interrogation center in Jerusalem. On 10 June, he had been scheduled for release and his family had already paid a bail amount.

However, instead, he was ordered to administrative detention, Israeli imprisonment without charge or trial, one of approximately 750 Palestinians imprisoned on the basis of “secret evidence.” Administrative detention orders – issued, in Safadi’s case as a Jerusalemite, by Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman – are indefinitely renewable.

Addameer issued a profile detailing Safadi’s case and his experience under interrogation. “Under the forty-day interrogation, Hasan Safadi was subjected to sleep deprivation, long interrogation sessions, being placed into stress positions with hands tied throughout the interrogation, threats, shouting, and lack of adequate food. Additionally, he was denied access to an attorney for 10 days (12 – 22 May 2016) as well as family visitation. As a result, his family was unable to see him until 07 June 2016 during a court hearing.”

Take action at Front Line Defenders: https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/profile/hasan-safadi