Israel gives Palestinian journalist six months detention without trial

Israeli occupation authorities placed Palestinian journalist Mohammed Muna in administrative detention yesterday, almost two weeks after he was first arrested.

According to reports, Muna will be detained for six months without charge or trial.

Occupation forces seized Muna from his home in Zuata village near Nablus on 1 August.

Muna is a reporter for news agency Al-Quds Press and director of the Nablus-based Radio Hawa.

Read: Israel arrests 7 Palestinian journalists in one week

The journalist was previously arrested by Israeli forces in August 2013, and was placed in administrative detention until his release in April 2015.

In a statement last week, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemned the arrest of a number of Palestinian journalists by Israeli occupation authorities in recent weeks, stating that Israel “has been relentless in its assault on the Palestinian press”.

“We call on Israeli authorities to disclose charges against the seven journalists arrested over the past week or release them and allow them to work freely,” said CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa program coordinator, Sherif Mansour.

Israeli occupation authorities use administrative detention as a routine tool of political repression, in violation of international humanitarian law.