Samer Issawi, Palestinian prisoner who has been engaged in a hunger strike for 179 days, was transferred to Assaf Harofeh hospital from Ramleh prison on Saturday, January 19, 2013, reported Shirin Issawi, Samer’s sister.
Shirin Issawi said that her brother had been transferred because of a sharp fall in his heart rate, and reported that her brother is suffering from severe pain throughout his body, especially in his abdomen and kidneys. She noted that this has increased since he was assaulted by occupation forces while in the Magistrate’s Court, when he suffered a broken rib.
Samer Issawi has been on an open and partial hunger strike for 179 days. He is 33 years old, from Issawiya village near Jerusalem. Freed from his 30-year sentence in the prisoner exchange agreement of October 2011 after serving nearly 10 years, he was re-arrested on July 7, 2012, in an area within the Jerusalem municipal boundaries, and accused of violating the terms of his release by leaving Jerusalem. <a href=”http://electronicintifada.net/content/jerusalemite-faces-decades-prison-after-visiting-nearby-village/11596″>This article by Ma’ath Musleh for Electronic Intifada</a> provides a full overview of Issawi’s case.
On January 16, the Magistrate’s Court in Jerusalem declined to hear Issawi’s case, postponing a ruling on his case until February 5, 2013, when he will face the Ofer military court.
