PA arrests 5 Palestinians without charge

Four Palestinian men have been arrested by the PA intelligence agency but no charges have been brought against them.

The intelligence services arrested Safwan Jamal Amr from Jerusalem, as well as Qusay Ziyad Al-Fakhoury and Abdulrahman Fawzy Khatib from Hebron. They later arrested Musab Abu Ishkhaidim from Hebron and extended their detention for 48 hours, promising to release them without specifying when.

According to Thaer Al-Fakhoury, one of the detainees’ brothers, on 6 September, “the first arrested individual, Safwan Jamal Amr, came from Jerusalem to Hebron to pick up a sign from the printing shop owned by Qusay Al-Fakhoury in Hebron. The sign was a welcome back sign for his family coming back from Saudi Arabia, but the young men in Hebron insisted that Amr stay for a barbeque they were having later that night.”

Image of the five Palestinians who were arrested by the PA [Qudsn.ps]

He noted that the intelligence is claiming that they were arrested because when the young men were stopped for questioning, they did not respond to the intelligence agents and tried to flee, making the agents suspicious. This has been denied by the detainees who said they answered the questions the first time they were stopped by the intelligence agents.

Read: PA arrest of Issa Amro ‘shameless attack on freedom of expression’

Fakhoury mentioned that yesterday the court extended the four men’s detention for 48 hours, claiming that they would be released during this time. This is the first time a promise like this is has been made. He stressed that the prosecution did not direct any charges against the young men that they could be prosecuted on.

Meanwhile, university student Asa’ad Al-Taweel from the Palestinian village of Far’ata, located in the Qalqilya governorate, who was arrested five days ago by the intelligence agency, was transferred to the Jericho Prison.

Al-Taweel’s family told Safa news agency that they have been prohibited from visiting him or sending him clothes and were informed this morning that their son is being transferred.

They noted that the intelligence agency has been trying to arrest him since before the Eid holiday, urging him to turn himself in, but he refused insisting he spend Eid with his family.

The family stated that Al-Taweel had informed them he would go on a hunger strike as soon as he was arrested. They also expressed their fears that he was immediately transferred to the prison as soon as he was arrested, and wasn’t transferred just this morning.

Al-Taweel was detained for 17 days last year, during which he was subject to extreme torture, and was detained for seven months this year in Israeli prisons and released only a few months ago.