Palestinian prisoner in Texas ‘lacks medical care’ despite having Covid-19

The health of a Palestinian prisoner held at the Federal Correction Institute in Seagoville, Texas has been deteriorating due to a “lack of appropriate treatment” for Covid-19, Shehab news agency reported on Monday.

Mofeed Meshaal is serving 20 years for allegedly channelling charitable funds to Hamas.

“My brother and other Palestinians were detained by the US authorities in what was known as the Holy Land Foundation case,” explained Maher Meshaal. “He was sentenced to 20 years but some were imprisoned for as long as 65 years.”

He added that his brother has now spent more than 12 years in prison, and he and his colleagues have contracted the coronavirus.

He accused the prison authorities of “medical negligence” by not providing adequate healthcare. “They are in a separate wing,” Maher Meshaal pointed out, “but have had no treatment.”

Report: 95% of Palestinian detainees tortured in Israel’s jails

The prisoner is the brother of the former head of the Hamas political bureau, Khaled Meshaal. Mofeed Meshaal and his colleagues at the Holy Land Foundation denied the allegations, pointing out that all of the charity’s funds were deposited in US banks and transferred to needy Palestinians through Israeli banks.

The 2004 court case ended in a hung jury. The 2008 retrial has gained notoriety, not least because the prosecution depended on “unprecedented” secret evidence from an Israeli intelligence agent known only as “Avi”.

The judge in the case “brushed aside the defendants’ right under the Sixth Amendment ‘to be confronted with the witnesses against him’.”

Miko Peled, the son of a “famous Israeli general and a passionate anti-Zionist” was so moved by the case and the perceived injustice that he wrote a book about it. Injustice: The story of the Holy Land Foundation Five is an “exhaustive study” of the issue.