Palestinian activist, human rights defender, and coordinator of Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association‘s Legal Unit Ayman Nasser was released from Israeli prison today, 13 September, after 1 year in administrative detention without charge or trial. Nasser has been repeatedly detained and imprisoned on multiple occasions, targeted for his advocacy for Palestinian prisoners.

He had been released from prison for less than one year at the time of his arrest, having been imprisoned for over a year in 2012 and 2013, sentenced by an Israeli military court for his activities in support of Palestinian political prisoners. . When addressing the military court, he said,“I believe that every human being has opinions and positions and if it’s not violating the law he can freely think and speak these opinions. I am a human rights defender who supports the Palestinian prisoners and I represent my opinions in the public media. My thoughts are not secret, they are public, and everyone knows them.” 

His administrative detention was initially for a period of three months and was renewed several times during the past year. Addameer lawyer Sahar Francis was not informed of the so-called “secret evidence” against him, but that it was “similar to the material for his previous arrest,” which concerned his participation in public events, rallies and activities calling for the freedom of Palestinian political prisoners.

Ayman Nasser has worked at Addameer since 2008 on the issue of Palestinian prisoners; he is a former prisoner, having served a six-year sentence in Israeli jails, from 1992 to 1997. He is a prominent human rights defender, and his freedom was demanded by people around the world.

He is married to Halima and has four sons; during his detention, his family members were repeatedly denied permits to visit him in prison.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network salutes Ayman Nasser, dedicated struggler for Palestinian prisoners and for the Palestinian people, and calls for all of the thousands of Palestinian prisoners behind bars to join him in freedom. Samidoun urges ongoing and sustained action to free all Palestinian prisoners, and to prevent the repeated arrest of leading activists and strugglers like Ayman Nasser.

Video of Ayman discussing his 2012 arrest: