Palestinian professor jailed for ‘incitement’

An Israeli military court yesterday convicted Palestinian astrophysics Professor Imad Barghouti of “incitement”, sentencing him to seven months in prison.

The 52-year-old academic, who lectures at Al-Quds University in occupied East Jerusalem, was arrested in April and initially imprisoned without charge or trial, under administrative detention.

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Society said that the military court in Ofer backdated the seven-month sentence to the date of his detention in April.

Earlier this year, more than 350 international academics signed a petition demanding his release, including Freeman Dyson, Professor Emeritus of Physics at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and Fields Medal laureate David Mumford.

According to his lawyer, the case is based on comments posted on his Facebook page.

In 2014, Barghouti was held without charge or trial for a month and a half.

There are currently around 7,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, around one in ten of whom are held under administrative detention. The military court system has a conviction rate of 99.74 per cent.