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Israel refuses to end solitary confinement of Raed Salah

October 26, 2016 at 10:43 am

An Israeli court yesterday refused to end the solitary confinement of the head of the Islamic Movement in Israel, Sheikh Raed Salah, Quds Press reported.

Arab-Israeli rights group Al-Mizan for Human Rights filed a petition to the Israeli court to end the solitary confined of Salah, which started on the first day of his detention on 8 May.

In addition to solitary confinement, the rights group said, the Israeli prison services have refused Salah access to newspapers and books. They also have been trying to decrease the number of family visits.

The rights group said that it had sent several messages to the prison administration and to the Israeli prison services, requesting the justification of Salah’s solitary confinement. It noted it received no response. “This pushed us to appeal to the court,” the group said in a statement.

According to the statement, the Israeli prison services decided to put Salah in solitary confinement for one month. Since then, it renewed the solitary confinement order every month.

His lawyer, Khalid Zabarqeh, said the court agreed to leave Salah in solitary confinement because he is a “popular person and had a well-known media appearance so that he might impact other prisoners if mixed with them.”

In remarks made to Quds Press, Zabarqeh said that Sheikh Salah is currently in Ramon Prison in the Negev and is spending a nine-month prison term.