The administrative detention of Palestinian writer and thinker Ahmed Qatamesh was renewed for a fourth time on September 5, 2012 by an occupation military court. Qatamesh was arrested on April 21, 2011 and his detention has been extended four times to date.
This is not his first time in Israeli jails – he was arrested in 1992 and held for 100 days under severe torture, an experience detailed in his memoir, “I Shall Not Wear Your Tarboush.” When no incriminating evidence or confession was forthcoming, Qatamesh was placed in administrative detention without charge or trial, renewed repeatedly for nearly six years until his release in 1998. He is one of the longest-held Palestinian prisoners in administrative detention.
Amnesty International, which also denounced his earlier detention in the mid-1990s, recognizes Ahmed Qatamesh as a prisoner of conscience and calls for his release:
Article by Ahmad’s daughter Haneen about his arrest: http://electronicintifada.net/content/when-israeli-soldiers-came-arrest-my-father/9901
Addameer profile of Ahmad Qatamesh:
http://www.addameer.org/etemplate.php?id=156
1998 interview with Ahmad Qatamesh:
http://www.freearabvoice.org/interviewSeniorAdministrativeDetaineeQatamesh.htm
In 1999, Ahmad Qatamesh was detained by the Palestinian Authority for joining a protest against corruption: http://www.phrmg.org/pressrelease/1999/04dec1999.htm
Write to Ahmad Qatamesh:
Ahmad Qatamesh, Ofer Prison, Givat Zeev, PO Box 3007, via Israel
