Palestinian youth rearrested after just 25 days may soon be released

An Israeli military judge on Sunday ordered the release of Haitham Siaj who was recently rearrested just 25 days after being freed from detention without charge, said Addameer.

The prisoners’ rights group said that the judge gave “the military prosecutor a period of four days to appeal the release, which ends on 8 February 2018”.

Twenty-year-old Siaj was detained by Israeli occupation forces on 21 October 2016, after which he was placed under administrative detention (no charge or trial) for two consecutive six-month periods.

Subsequently indicted and sentenced, he was finally freed on 31 December 2017. However, on 25 January he was rearrested.

Lawyer Mahmoud Hassan told the court that Siaj “spent less than four weeks out of the Israeli jails without committing any security breach”, proving “that the military prosecution’s claim that the prisoner forms a threat to the security of the area, and releasing him causes a security risk, is void.”

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Hassan further noted that “this also means that military area commander does not have the right to issue an administrative detention order against Siaj.”

According to Addameer, Israeli occupation authorities use administrative detention as “a tool of oppression against the Palestine people”.

“Rather than being used for genuine ‘security purposes’, as stipulated in the Fourth Geneva Convention, it is deployed most against students, journalists, activists, and human rights defenders.”