Palestinian children held in outdoor cages during severe winter storm

1 January 2014

Israel put Palestinian prisoners, including children, in outdoor cages during the severe winter storm that struck the region in the middle of last month.

“The shocking practice was highlighted in a year-end statement by the advocacy group, the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) and discussed by Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, this week.

“Also detailed in a letter from the office of Israel’s National Public Defender, the practice had been going on for months, but has now supposedly been halted.

The 16 December letter to the head of the Israel Prison Service (IPS) says that lawyers from the public defender’s office had learned of the practice during an official visit to the Ramle prison compound where Palestinian political prisoners, including children, are often transferred from the occupied West Bank in violation of international law.”

Iron cages

During the visit by two of its lawyers “which coincided with the fierce storm that struck the country, the attorneys met prisoners who described a shocking picture: in the middle of the night, dozens of prisoners were transferred to iron cages built outside the IPS facility in Ramle,” according to a 17 December statement from the public defender.

“In these cages, which were exposed to the weather, they spent several hours in the freezing cold and rain, until the transport arrived to take them to court around 6am,” the statement adds.

The statement said that the practice had been going on for months, a fact “verified during other official visits and not denied by IPS.”

The public defender launched an emergency appeal to various official bodies, including the ministry of justice, “in order to prevent another night of such grave harm to humanity.”

The statement notes that some of the prisoners in the cages were “minors” – children.

The Jerusalem Post reported on 31 December that Tzipi Livni, Israel’s justice minister “immediately telephoned Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch, telling him to end the practice.”

The matter was also discussed Tuesday in the Israeli parliament’s public petitions committee where, according to the Post, “the Knesset committee said that the manner of arrest and detention conditions of Palestinian children was violating Israeli law for dealing with children.”

“Alarm”

PCATI’s statement notes “with increasing alarm and condemnation Israel’s failure to protect Palestinian children from direct and indirect torture and ill treatment.”

It says it has received “dozens of complaints of torture and ill treatment from children in the last 10 years” and is currently working on cases “concerning children’s complaints of torture and ill treatment at the hands of Israeli soldiers and interrogators.”

For the full report, please visit Electronic Intifada.

Jan. 3, London: Protest G4S Complicity in Torture – Free the Hares Boys!

1 January 2014

Friday 3rd Jan – PROTEST G4S COMPLICITY IN TORTURE
– FREE HARES BOYS – FREE HUNGER STRIKERS

Date: Friday 3rd January 2014, 2pm – 4pm
Location: G4S HQ, 105 Victoria Street (Closest public transport: Victoria Tube/Rail station)

Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/245697525591921/

G4S – HARES BOYS

Solidarity with 5 Palestinian children tortured and caged by Israel for a crime that never happened.

On 14th March 2013 in what appears to have been a car accident when a speeding illegal Israeli settler car crashed in to the back of an Israeli truck which had stopped to change a flat tire, on a illegal Jews-only road in the West Bank, resulted in four people being hurt. At the behest of angry settlers, the incident was later presented as an attack by Palestinian stone throwing youth.

The truck drivers earlier testimony that he had stopped due to a flat tire was replaced with the new reason being that he had seen stones by the road, and an accident that nobody saw suddenly became a terror attack with 61 witnesses including the police!

Over the next few days over 50 masked Israeli soldiers with attack dogs stormed the local village of Hares in the early hours of the morning and in waves of violent arrests kidnapped the children of the village. In total 19 children were taken to the infamous G4S secured children’s dungeon at Al Jalame and locked up in solitary confinement for up to 2 weeks in filthy windowless 1m by 2m cells with no mattress. The children were violently tortured and sexual threats were made against the female members of their families in order to coerce confessions from the boys.

With the confessions and the new “eye-witness” statements, five of the Hares boys were charged with 25 counts of attempted murder each, even though there were only four people in the car. Apparently the military court had decided that 25 stones were thrown, each with an “intent to kill”. The five boys – the “Hares Boys” – Ali Shamlawi, Mohammed Kleib, Mohammed Mehdi Suleiman, Tamer Souf, and Ammar Souf are currently locked up in another G4S secured facility – Megiddo prison where G4S provides the entire central command room.

With no evidence of a crime the military court keeps on postponing the hearing dates for the children. All the October, November and December military court dates so far have been postponed and new ones issued for January by the Israeli military to the families of the boys, meanwhile the boys remain caged now for nearly 10 months now. Family visits are routinely cancelled with no notice being given, Ali Shamlawi mothers last scheduled visit on 17th Dec was cancelled – its a way to exert psychological pressure on both the children and their families.

Not that evidence, or lack of it, has any bearing in an Israeli military court – a study conducted by the Israeli NGO ‘No Legal Frontiers’ over a 12 month period concluded that 100% of Palestinian children brought before the military court are convicted. If the five boys are convicted they will be locked up for over 25 years – five young lives ruined with no evidence of a crime let alone their guilt.

We are demanding the immediate and unconditional release of all the children and hold G4S complicit in Israel’s crimes, particularly in the torture of Palestinian children.

FREE THE HUNGER STRIKERS – MOHAMMAD BADR, ISLAM BADR & THAER ABDU

We will also be protesting in solidarity with the three hunger strikers Mohammad Badr, Islam Badr, and Thaer Abdu who have been on hunger strike since 16th November to protest their ‘administrative detention’ – the practice used by Israel to imprison Palestinians indefinitely without charge or trial.

Under administrative detention prisoners are given rolling detention orders which can be anything from 1-6 months, renewable indefinitely. This is against international law. In the past administrative detainee Mazen Natsheh has been locked up cumulatively for nearly 10 years without charge or trial. Detention orders can be based on so called “secret information” which never needs to be produced, either to the detainee nor their lawyer, but often administrative detention is used to arbitrarily jail Palestinians where there is no evidence for a trial, or as a form of punishment as in the case of 10 Palestinian MPs currently locked up without charge. Israel has on average issued over 2000 detention orders every year (2007-2011). Today there are 145 administrative detainees.

Thaer Abdu was abducted by the Israeli occupation forces from his home on 27th October and is being held under a 6 month administrative detention. Mohammed and Islam Badr are brothers, and were abducted from their family shop on 28th October. Mohammad is being held under a 6 month detention order whilst Islam is on an initial 3 month detention. All three are held in G4S secured Ofer prison, but unlike other Palestinians who are placed in the political “security” section, they have been put in section 14 which is for common criminals. Until recently they were on total hunger strike, taking only water (no salts and no medication). As a result their health deteriorated very rapidly and they had to be transferred to hospital on 12th December. Now they are taking salt with water. Both Mohammad and Islam have lost 12kg in weight since the beginning of their strike. To punish them for their hunger strike the prison has put them in isolation and taken all their personal possessions from the cell and denied then adequate blankets and bedding whilst being kept in a very cold room making even drinking water difficult to swallow. Everyday the prison guards continue the punishment by violently raiding their rooms at least 5 times daily under pretext of inspection. Despite their hardships all three prisoners are committed to their hunger strike.

The British security contractor G4S is complicit in Israel’s illegal practice of punitive administrative detention. Figures from April show that 86% of administrative detainees – the vast majority, are locked up in G4S secured Israeli prisons. Most of them having been transferred from the West Bank into Israel in contravention of Article 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

LIVE UPDATES DURING PROTEST

We will, inshAllah, be tweeting live (hash tags #FreeHaresBoys #G4S ) from the protest with live photos being uploaded to our twitter and facebook page. So if you can’t join us on the day, please help us by sharing the photos as they get uploaded.

https://www.facebook.com/inmindscom

https://twitter.com/InmindsCom

PLEASE HELP RAISE MONEY FOR THE HARES BOYS

Please help raise money for the Hares Boys – five Palestinian children abducted from their homes in the village of Hares and caged in a hole in the ground and tortured until false confessions were extracted for stone throwing and are now facing possible life sentences. The aim is to raise as much as we can in 80 days (starting 30th Oct) to help all the 5 families to deal with the financial burden associated with having their children imprisoned. The children have already spent 8 months in an Israeli dungeon.

Israel is the only country in the world that charges prisoners for their imprisonment. They have to buy food, soap, toothpaste, and everything else for highly inflated prices in the prison shop, because the Apartheid state does not provide for the people it incarcerates. Not only are such policies designed to break the spirit of the imprisoned and their families – they also intend to ruin them financially. Its costs over 125 euros per month to provide for one child’s basic needs in prison.

The initial target of 2000 euros has been reached thanks to our French comrades, who raised a magnificent 1000 euros. The target was however kept low because of the way the fundraising works – if you don’t reach the target in 80 days all the money is returned and the families don’t get any of the money. So we still need people to contribute, every little helps. So far 2,822 euros have been raised with just 19 days remaining. Around 6% of the amount raised goes towards administrative and bank fees of namlebee – the hosts of the fundraising.

Please give generously, thank you.

http://www.namlebee.com/?np=proyecto&pro=27

JazakAllah

Palestinian Prisoners Campaign
www.inminds.com/caged

Palestinian writer Ahmed Qatamesh released after 2 1/2 years of administrative detention

26 December 2013

Palestinian writer, academic and leader Ahmad Qatamesh was released after two and one-half years in administrative detention, held in Israeli jails without charge or trial. He was taken from his home by Israeli occupation forces on April 21, 2011; he had earlier served 6 years in administrative detention from 1992 to 1998.

Suha Barghouthi, his wife, spoke to Al-Watan News, saying that Qatamesh is being released on the evening of December 26 at the Salem checkpoint, where his family was informed of the release by Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association lawyer Mahmoud Hassan.

Qatamesh teaches at Al-Quds University in Abu Dis and is a longtime political and social activist, accused by the Israeli state of membership in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and repeatedly detained without charge or trial as a “threat to the security of the area.” After an extensive legal battle Ofer military court had declared that his current administrative detention period would be the final such order in October 2013.

Qatamesh’s book “I will Not Wear Your Tarboosh” recounted his experiences in solitary confinement and under torture during his time in detention in the 1990s. In his current detention, Amnesty International, among many others, consistently called for his release as a prisoner of conscience.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network greets and salutes Ahmed Qatamesh upon his release, who has continued the struggle for justice and liberation for the Palestinian people inside and outside prisons for decades and has faced severe repression for his clear voice of advocacy. Like Samer Issawi, released on December 23 after securing victory in a legendary hunger strike, Qatamesh is a clear and heroic voice of dignity, justice, steadfastness and commitment to Palestinian rights.

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

Alaa Hammad ends hunger strike after agreement on family visits, medical treatment

13 December 2013

The Free Samer Issawi Campaign announced on Facebook:

After 222 days (215 consecutively) Alaa Hammad, Palestinian political prisoner with Jordanian citizenship has broke his heroic hunger strike for justice! One of his major demands which should have been automatic of course is the visit of his wife and kids starts next week which was coordinated directly with the “Israeli” foreign affairs ministry without any coordination with the Jordanian foreign affairs ministry. His much needed surgery shall be done within 10 days as well. Alaa Hammad has been transferred to the Ramon prison at this time. More information later on the negotiated deal later. Thank you for your support!

Samidoun salutes Nelson Mandela: For the liberation of all prisoners of freedom!

12 December 2013

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network salutes Nelson Mandela, South African struggler and leader who fought apartheid, and long-time political prisoner who was a symbol to the world of steadfastness and resistance from within the prison walls of a settler colonial, racist regime.

Mandela’s leadership and international recognition in the struggle to end apartheid in South Africa was strengthened over his twenty-six years in apartheid prisons. The call to free Mandela and his fellow political prisoners was part and parcel of the call for a free South Africa and an end to apartheid.

Mandela, the African National Congress, and other leaders and organizations in the struggle against apartheid were deemed illegal, labelled terrorists both by the apartheid regime and by its enablers and supporters around the world, including the US, Canadian and Israeli states, and faced with the constant threat of imprisonment.

Today, the name “Robben Island” is a symbol of political imprisonment and the steadfastness of those imprisoned, just as Nelson Mandela is a name revered around the world as a symbol of the will of a people to resist racism, apartheid and oppression and struggle for liberation.

And today, Palestinian prisoners, who refuse – like Mandela – to give up their right to resist by all means occupation, apartheid, settler colonialism and racism, are daily struggling for their freedom and the freedom of their people.

Palestinian political prisoners are part and parcel of the Palestinian national liberation movement. They are leaders, symbols and heroes who distinguish themselves daily in the struggle for a free and liberated Palestine. Palestinian leaders – Ahmad Sa’adat, Marwan Barghouthi, and their over 5,000 sisters and brothers in occupation prisons inspire Palestinians and people all around the world to struggle for justice. They, like the prisoners who came before in South Africa, are a compass pointing towards liberation.

Nelson Mandela said, “We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.” South African liberation strugglers trained side by side with Palestinian liberation strugglers in the 1960s and 1970s, while Israel and the South African apartheid regime built strong military, economic and political ties.

Both recognized well their common interests and common nature: liberation movements seeking freedom, dignity, human justice and liberation from colonialism, apartheid and racism; and settler states determined to exert imperial force to retain stolen land, resources and power.

As we remember Nelson Mandela, as we remember Robben Island, we look today at Ofer, Nafha, Eshel, Ramon, Hasharon, Ramle, Negev, Megiddo, Hadarim, Gilboa, Nitzan, Shata, Ketziot, Moskobiya and every detention center, prison and interrogation cell where today’s fighters against apartheid, racism, colonialism and oppression are held behind the bars of occupation.

Palestine’s prisoners, Palestine’s people, and Palestine’s land will be free, and the thousands held behind bars, in prison cells, dungeons and torture chambers – and the nearly a million imprisoned over the course of occupation – will be, as they are now, leading at the front lines on the march toward freedom, return and liberation – their freedom, the freedom of their people, and all of our freedom.

Nelson Mandela gave his life to the struggle for freedom and justice. He spent decades behind bars as a prisoner of freedom. In dedication to his legacy today, we pledge to struggle until the freedom of all who walk the path of liberation.

Take Action: End the harassment of Palestinian teacher Sireen Khudiri!

12 December 2013

Sireen Khudiri, 24, Palestinian schoolteacher and organizer, has been repeatedly harassed and her home raided by Israeli occupation forces in the past weeks. Click here to take action to demand an end to the harassment of Sireen Khudiri.

Seized by occupation soldiers on May 15, 2013, Khudiri was imprisoned for two months. She was then fined, placed under house arrest and prohibited from using the Internet; the allegations Khudiri faced were that she created a facebook page that could “harm the security of the state of Israel.” In September 2013, she was found not guilty – but ordered to not engage in political activism for five years.

When she was arrested in May as she drove to her hometown of Tubas, this was followed by 20 occupation soldiers storming her family home accompanied by 25 tanks and 100 soldiers stationed on the street, taking all of the computers in the family home.

Since her release in July, the violent harassment of Khudiri and her family has escalated. At 3:00 am on Tuesday, November 11, her family home was raided and her family presented with a piece of paper demanding Sireen report to Tayasir Checkpoint, an occupation military station; Sireen was not at home.

Sireen has since been unable to return home, due to the threat of the occupation army. On November 27, the home of Sireen’s brother, Waleed Khudiri, was invaded by 60 soldiers at 2:00 am. Waleed was then taken to the homes of several other Palestinians where they were interrogated as Waleed was held. He was interrogated at Hamra checkpoint until 7:00 am.

Sireen fears that if she returns home, she will be imprisoned as a political prisoner for a lengthy sentence. Please take action to support Sireen!

Sireen’s campaign has a website here, with a call to action: http://freesireen.wordpress.com/

Take Action

Please contact your elected representative (eg Member of Parliament, Member of European Parliament, Member of Congress or Senator).

Ask them to urgently write to the Government Minister that deals with Foreign Affairs, and insist that pressure be brought on Israel to:

account for its harassment of Sireen Khudiri; and
stop all further harassment of her and her family.

Request that they contact the following people and institutions:

Israeli Ambassador in your country
Minister of Defence, Moshe Ya’alon,
37 Kaplan Street, Hakirya,
Tel Aviv 61909, Israel.
Fax: +972 3 696 2757
Click here to email the Minister of Defence and other occupation officials
(The West Bank is under military occupation and military rule. Legal decisions about the lives of Palestinians in the West Bank are made by the military occupation forces)
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
Palais des Nations
CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/AboutUs/Pages/ContactUs.aspx
United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Occupied Palestinian Territories)
http://www.ochaopt.org/index.aspx

Alaa Hammad resumes hunger strike, appeals for international support

12 December 2013

Alaa Hammad, the Palestinian prisoner with Jordanian citizenship who has carried on an open-ended hunger strike since May 2, resumed his hunger strike on Sunday, December 9 after a brief suspension of his strike.

Hammad suspended his strike after the Israeli prison authorities agreed to facilitate family visits with his wife and children, and with his aunts and uncles. His aunts and uncles visited on Saturday, December 8 but no progress was made by the prison authorities to allow Hammad’s wife and children to visit him.

Therefore, Hammad, who has been denied family visits for 7 years, resumed his strike. Hammad originally was on hunger strike along with four other political prisoners holding Jordanian citizenship. After severe health consequences, the other four ended their strikes with agreement to facilitate family visits.

However, Hammad maintained his strike and Israeli prison authorities have repeatedly refused or delayed family visits for all of the prisoners.

Alaa Hammad released the following letter on his resumption of hunger strike (translation via GCPPP (formerly free Samer Issawi campaign), Abbas Hamideh and Maie Abu Damous):

In the name of God the most gracious, the most merciful.

To my father and mother my most precious people, to my wife and children the apple of my eye, to my brothers and sisters my heart and soul, to all the loyal people working for the political prisoners freedom:

I send you all my greetings and would like to inform you about the resumption of my open hunger strike on Sunday evening at 4 PM, as the Jordanian government was quick to immediately announce the suspension of my open hunger strike within only few hours after my declaration, although they haven’t reported my news nor did anything to help me get my freedom for 215 days. Their action was reflexive and unusual because their ears are close to the mouth of the israeli trumpet. They hastened to declare my hunger strike suspension which pleased them to put an end to an era of shame that lasted for seven months of deliberate negligence against the children, wives, mothers and brothers asking for the right to visit their sons in Israeli occupation jails.

Accordingly, I inform you that I am continuing my open hunger strike until the fulfillment of what I agreed upon with the Israeli occupation Foreign Ministry which includes the visit of my children and wife in addition to other demands that I will not mention here to avoid a lengthy letter. The occupation authorities have only allowed my extended family who live in Jerusalem to visit me and that was one demand of the agreement and they have been procrastinating on the visit of my wife and children and all I have been hearing are only empty promises.

Therefore due to the Israeli occupation prison service stalling on fulfilling their end of the agreement I hereby announce the resumption of my hunger strike until they fulfill my demands with the following options: My freedom to go back home to my place of residence in Jordan where my immediate family lives or the right of 1/3 sentence as per the Israeli occupation prison law and if these demands are not met I will continue the strike protesting the brutal oppression that I and all the Palestinian political prisoners endure on a daily basis behind these jails of injustice where we are held hostage.

I now wait for the second response at four o’clock in the evening on Tuesday and perhaps this is the last response I will hear from them before we shut this door permanently and start over with the strike demanding liberation since we can’t get our basic rights any other way.

This is all I have to say for now with all thanks due to God and I of course still count on you and your courageous support as usual. I may not have all the energy for this second round so I may throw the ball in your court to assist me in this victory from the Almighty God.

Thank you and God bless you and your brave efforts in standing with justice for all Palestinian political prisoners!

Medhat Issawi released as family – and world – await brother Samer’s release

12 December 2013

On December 10, Medhat Tareq al-Issawi, the brother of long-time hunger striker and fellow Palestinian prisoner Samer Issawi, was released from Israeli prisons after spending 22 months.

Medhat Issawi was jailed on charges of membership in the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine. He has spent over 20 years in Israeli prisons over varying period and is a DFLP leader.

Samer Issawi refused food for over 200 days after he was re-arrested following his release in the October 2011 prisoner exchange. Issawi was freed from his 30-year sentence in the prisoner exchange agreement of October 2011 after serving nearly 10 years, he was re-arrested on July 7, 2012, in an area within the Jerusalem municipal boundaries, and accused of violating the terms of his release by leaving Jerusalem.

Medhat Issawi and his daughter. Via @Sireenessawi on Twitter

Samer Issawi finally ended his hunger strike when Israeli authorities agreed to release him after serving 18 months, on December 22, 2013. Palestinian and international pressure on Israel supported Samer’s hunger strike as people around the world expressed their solidarity with Samer’s struggle against unjust imprisonment.

Fadi Issawi, Medhat and Samer’s brother, was killed by Israeli soldiers – shot in 1994, just a week after his 16th birthday. During Samer’s hunger strike, his sister Shireen, who often served as the spokesperson for his case, was arrested for 24 hours, held for 10 days under house arrest, and her law license was suspended for six months. The home of Ra’fat Issawi, another brother of Samer, Medhat and Shireen, was demolished by Israeli authorities in January 2013.

Layla Issawi, Samer, Medhat, Shireen, Fadi and Ra’fat’s mother, visited Samer on December 10 after Medhat’s release. While she was there, she sent a message to Ahmad Sa’adat, the imprisoned General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine:

To the Secretary General of the Popular Front Ahmad Sa’adat,
Goodbye my brother, noblest of men, I saw you yesterday during my last visit to my son Samer before his release; I see you always when I visit, and I cried, because I will not see you – and God knows when I will see you again? I long for freedom for you and all of the prisoners. Congratulations on the anniversary of the founding of the Popular Front!
Um Samer al-Issawi

Mona Qa’adan’s trial postponed for tenth time

12 December 2013

The trial of Palestinian political prisoner Mona Qa’adan, 42, from Jenin, was postponed for the tenth time on December 9, postponed until December 19 with no reason given by the Salem military court.

Qa’adan, who previously served three and one-half year in Israeli prisons, was re-arrested on November 13, 2012 after her release from occupation prisons in October 2011 as part of the prisoner exchange agreement. Since her arrest, she has been denied family visits, even from family members with permits for visitation.

Former prisoner Tareq Qa’adan, the brother of Mona, told Ahrar center for human rights that it was the tenth time the Israeli military courts rescheduled the trial of his sister. While Tareq was imprisoned, Mona engaged in solidarity hunger strikes to support his demands.

Three hunger strikers moved to hospital as administrative detainees escalate protest

12 December 2013

Mohammad and Islam Badr, brothers, and Thaer Abdu, have been transferred to hospital from Ofer prison on December 12 and remain on hunger strike. They launched their hunger strike on November 16 after they were each sentenced to administrative detention. Palestinian political prisoners held in administrative detention are held with no charge or trial, for up to six month renewable periods, on the basis of secret evidence.

All were arrested in mass sweeps in late October. Both Mohammad and Islam Badr have lost over 12 kilograms in weight since the beginning of their strike. The three hunger strikers have been isolated from their fellow detainees and all of their personal belongings were removed from their room in Ofer. They were denied extra blankets and bedding held in a very cold room in Ofer, such as to make drinking water uncomfortable. Prison guards entered and aggressively raided their room at least five times daily under a pretext of inspection.

They are demanding an end to their detention without charge or trial and striking to demand their freedom, taking only water and salt.

In addition, all of the administrative detainees in Israeli prisons are continuing coordinated steps to protest their detention and continuing restrictions and deprivations of their rights. The Solidarity Foundation for Human Rights reported that administrative detainees in the Negev have been denied family visits for two months and have been prevented from receiving newspapers and books, as well as being denied recreation outside their section for a week. In Megiddo prison, 6 detainees have been isolated because of their continuing protest.

Raafat Nassif told the Solidarity Foundation that administrative detainees will begin returning their meals on Mondays and Thursdays as the third state of their collective protest. Previously, administrative detainees were striking one day a week. Other steps will be taken in the future up to and including an open-ended hunger strike, he said.

Follow us on Instagram @samidounnetwork