Ahmad Rimawi, 20, formerly the youngest Palestinian administrative detainee held in Israeli occupation prisons, died accidentally on 18 August after falling from a water tank and hitting his head on the edge of a door at his grandparents’ home in Abwein village, reported Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association.
Ahmad’s father, Ishraq, had been imprisoned since 15 June 2001, serving a 19 year sentence, and his family home was demolished when Ahmad was just seven years old. He knew his father only through the glass at prison visits until early 2013, when they met without the glass for the first time. In early 2014, Ahmad and Ishraq were reunited in prison, sharing a prison cell.
Shortly after his 18th birthday, Ahmad was arrested with two of his friends by Israeli Occupation Forces on 17 November 2012 as they travelled through a checkpoint. An administrative detention order – without charge or trial – was issued against him three days later, and was renewed five times until he was finally released in early 2015.
He was an active participant in last year’s mass hunger strike of administrative detainees – which his father joined in solidarity with his son. He was about to enter university for the fall term in early September at the time of his death.
Addameer has a full profile of Ahmad (issued while he was imprisoned): http://www.addameer.org/prisoner/ahmad-rimawi
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network mourns the loss of Ahmad Rimawi, his precious and promising life cut short by a tragic accident after so much steadfastness, struggle, and so much hardship caused by the occupation and its attacks.
