2022 the worst year for political detention by Palestinian Authority

The Palestinian Authority (PA) has escalated its political detention and torture of Palestinian prisoners, making 2022 the worst in more than 15 years, Al Resalah newspaper reported yesterday.

The escalation in political detentions and torture by the PA coincided with the escalation of Palestinian resistance against the Israeli occupation in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, the paper added.

Lawyers for Justice, a Palestinian rights group based in the West Bank, said that the PA’s escalation against Palestinians aims to suppress the escalating Palestinian resistance against the occupation.

“Political detention and torture of prisoners are strongly condemned,” lawyer Muhannad Karaja, from Lawyers for Justice, said, stressing that all of these detentions “amount to flagrant violations of Palestinian law.”

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He added that he believes there are more than 200 political prisoners being held in the PA’s jails, however there are no official figures to verify his estimate. The majority, he added, have previously been held by Israel.

Karaja said that the PA detained 26 Palestinian students from their universities.

Al Resalah highlighted the case of Musaab Shtayyeh who remains in jail more than 100 days after a court ordered the PA to release him.

Rights groups said that the PA detained at least 700 Palestinians in 2022, pointing out that most were tortured. All were illegally detained.

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