UN concerned over Kayed’s health

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) yesterday expressed concern over the deteriorating health of 35-year-old Palestinian hunger striker Bilal Kayed, a statement said.

Kayed began his hunger strike on 15 June after he was placed on administrative detention on the day of his release after serving a 14 and a half year prison term.

“After 70 days of hunger strike, Kayed is reported to be in a critical condition and doctors have informed him that he may suffer irreversible damage to his health,” OHCHR spokesperson Cécile Pouilly said in a press briefing in Geneva, Switzerland.

According to OHCHR, the administrative detention order was issued against him “on unspecified security grounds and relying on ‘secret evidence’.”

Pouilly added that the UN human rights arm is also “concerned at the situation of some 100 Palestinian detainees who are on hunger strike in solidarity with Kayed or to protest their own administrative detention or placement in isolation.”

Kayed is one of at least 700 Palestinians believed to be held in administrative detention in Israeli jails, “this is the highest number of such detainees at a given time since early 2008.”

“We, once again, urge the Israeli authorities to end their practice of administrative detention and to either release immediately or promptly charge and prosecute all administrative detainees, with all the judicial guarantees required by international human rights law and standards,” she concluded.