The Ofer military court upheld Palestinian academic and political detainee Ahmed Qatamesh’s administrative detention order on October 8, 2013. The order is in place for four months and Qatamesh is scheduled to be released in January 2014. He has been held in administrative detention since April 2011.
According to Jawad Boulos, legal director of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society, the judge’s order affirmed that Qatamesh’s detention should end at the close of the present order, nd he should be transfered to a prison closer to his family, especially since he is suffering from medical problems.
The administrative detention order is supposed to be the final one against Qatamesh; however an earlier court decision affirmed that his detention order can be extended upon its expiration by the director of the Shin Bet (General Intelligence.)
Boulos noted that the military judge made critical comments on administrative detention in the ruling, stating that the British Mandate used administrative detention against Jews. Boulos said that the ruling, confirming Qatamesh’s extended detention, will be appealed.
Qatamesh, a Palestinian political writer and university lecturer, was taken from his home by Israeli forces on April 21, 2011. Prior to his current administrative detention, he spent a previous six years, from 1992 until 1998, in administrative detention.
Amnesty International, among many others, has called 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
