Palestinian prisoner Saddam al-Saadah was ordered to an additional four months in administrative detention – imprisonment without charge or trial – immediately following his scheduled release from Israeli prison on 17 December 2016.
Al-Saadah, 24, from the town of Halhoul near al-Khalil, completed his 10-month sentence in Israeli prison and was awaiting release when he was instead ordered to four more months in prison without charge or trial. He is also the subject of a four-year suspended sentence; his brother Faris al-Saadah is also imprisoned.
This is another use of the transfer of prisoners to administrative detention upon the completion of their sentences; the best-known case is that of Bilal Kayed, who completed a 14.5-year sentence in Israeli prisons in June only to be ordered to six months in administrative detention as his family awaited him after over 14 years of separation. Kayed was released to a massive celebration on 12 December; he conducted a 71-day hunger strike to secure his freedom that was met with widespread Palestinian and international support.
Al-Saadah is now one of 700 Palestinians imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention. Administrative detention orders are issued from one to six months at a time and are indefinitely and repeatedly renewable. Palestinians have spent years at a time held under administrative detention.
