Greek left party, “Popular Unity,” demands the release of Mohammed Khatib

The Greek left political party, “Popular Unity,” issued a statement calling for the release of Mohammed Khatib, Samidoun coordinator in Europe, and an end to any deportation proceedings. Mohammed Khatib was arrested on 7 February in Heraklion as he traveled to speak at an event in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners, also featuring liberated Palestinian prisoner Abdel-Nasser Issa. He has been held in detention since then, in unhealthy and dangerous conditions; the detention center has bedbugs, he has been denied medication, his money was stolen or taken, and he has been repeatedly denied access to the phone, despite being held in “administrative,” rather than “criminal,” detention.

We reiterate our demand for Mohammed’s immediate release. The detention of Mohammed on the pretext of a “national security” ban on his entrance to Greece — allegedly issued two days following the Greece-Cyprus-“Israel” tripartite summit — makes clear that this is a political attack not only on Mohammed and Samidoun but on the Palestinian people in exile and diaspora and the Palestinian prisoners’ movement.

Please send solidarity statements calling for Mohammed Khatib’s release to samidoun@samidoun.net. The statement from Popular Unity follows:

We denounce the arrest and detention in Heraklion of Mohammed Khatib, European coordinator of Samidoun, who was in Crete for a public demonstration of solidarity with the Palestinian people and political prisoners.

The government invokes “national security reasons”. This is a political pretext. The so-called “national security” is not threatened by the Palestinian national liberation movement nor by a Palestinian political initiative with international action, such as Samidoun. On the contrary, what has been revealed about the Predator scandal and the Israeli connections with the surveillance of ministers, senior officers and opposition figures, as well as the allegations of funding and “influence trips” of MPs, show who is really undermining democracy and popular sovereignty.

The swindle of the Hellenic Police. and the Greek government is completed by the fact that they are attempting to criminalize a Palestinian solidarity organization, following Israel’s line — a line that to date only the US, Canada and Germany have adopted.

While the genocidal attack on Gaza continues, the Mitsotakis government chooses to persecute solidarity activists and act as a willing partner of the Israeli state and its imperialist allies.

Solidarity is not criminalized.

We demand the immediate release of Mohammed Khatib and the cancellation of any deportation proceedings.

Greek original: