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<font size=3>Addameer works to support and free Palestinian political
prisoners </font><font face="times" size=3 color="#0000FF"><u>
<a href="http://www.addameer.org/" eudora="autourl">http://www.addameer.org/<br><br>
</a></u></font><font size=3>Addameer Press Release - 04 August
2004<br><br>
Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Addameer Detained by Israeli
Army<br><br>
On Thursday 29 July 2004, the Israeli army arrested Abdul Latif Gheith,
Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Addameer Prisoners Support and Human
Rights Association, at Qalandiya military checkpoint. Mr. Gheith,
63 years old, was attempting to cross Qalandiya military checkpoint at
approximately 2 PM when he was arrested by Israeli soldiers positioned at
the checkpoint.<br><br>
Today, Wednesday 04 August 2004 at 2 PM, Addameer's Attorney Adv. Mahmoud
Hassan was able to visit Abdul Latif Gheith, who has been denied legal
counsel since his arrest. In his affidavit to Adv. Hassan, Gheith
stated that he had been detained at the checkpoint for some time before
an Israeli General Security Services (Shabak) officer arrived to question
him at the military checkpoint. The Shabak officer questioned him
for 15 minutes about his work at Addameer, the work and activities of
Addameer, and employees at Addameer. Shortly after the
interrogation, Israeli army soldiers transported Gheith to the Israeli
settlement of Giva'at Ze'ev near Jerusalem, and from there he was then
transferred to Benyamin Military Detention Camp at the Ofer military
base, on the outskirts of the city of Ramallah.<br><br>
From the moment of his arrest, Gheith was not given any reason for his
detention and has not been charged with any offence. Israeli
military regulations effective in the Occupied Palestinian Territories
allow for the Israeli army to detain any Palestinian for a period of 8
days without providing reason for the detention. Although Gheith is
a resident of Jerusalem and holds a Jerusalem ID card, and therefore
governed by differing regulations of detention, the Israeli occupation
authorities have dealt with Gheith based on military regulations in
effect for holders of West Bank ID cards.<br><br>
At 4 PM today, 04 August 2004, Adv. Mahmoud Hassan was informed that the
Israeli Military Commander of the West Bank had issued an administrative
detention order against Gheith. The order, signed on 04 August
2004, states that 썲. Gheith, born in 1941 and a resident of Shu'fat,
Jerusalem, is to be administratively detained from 05 August 2004 until
04 February 2005 because he forms a danger to the security of the
region.bsp; Gheith joins over 700 other Palestinians who are currently
arbitrarily detained under administrative detention orders, imprisoned
without charge or trial, some of whom have spent over 3 years in
administrative detention.<br><br>
Abdul Latif Gheith, a prominent public figure in Jerusalem and the
Palestinian community at large, has devoted his life to the protection of
human rights and social justice activities. He has most recently
focused much of his energy and activism on social justice and human
rights issues as relate to violations of the rights of Palestinian
residents of Jerusalem, particularly against the Annexation Wall that has
created enclaves of Palestinian residential areas and suffocated
Palestinian society. Mr. Gheith is a member of the Palestinian
Civil Society Committee on Jerusalem and a member of the Higher
Palestinian National Committee on Political Prisoners.<br><br>
The spectre of administrative detention is not unfamiliar to Gheith who,
like thousands of other Palestinian activists, has been targeted by this
form of arbitrary and debilitating punishment. In 1988, with the
beginning of the first Intifada, Gheith was arbitrarily detained for 6
months and, following a brief release, was detained again in 1989 for
another 6 months of administrative detention.<br><br>
Addameer views the administrative detention of Gheith as part of an
ongoing, systematic oppressive campaign by Israel to use arbitrary
detention to silence the work of Palestinian social activists, with the
aim of destroying the social fabric of Palestinian society as a
whole. Like the over 700 Palestinians currently in administrative
detention, and the thousands of others who have been subject to this form
of arbitrary punishment over the past few decades, Gheith is detained in
a military detention camp, renown for their inhumane conditions of
detention, and is subject to the physical and psychological torment of
imprisonment for indefinite periods of time, without knowing the reasons
for his detention or the opportunity to defend himself against charges
brought against him.<br><br>
Addameer demands the immediate release of Abdul Latif Gheith, and all
administrative detainees who continue to be held without charge or trial,
and for the Israeli Occupation Authorities to immediately cease their
systematic use of arbitrary detention.<br><br>
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</pre><font face="times" size=3>_____________________________________________________<br>
ADDAMEER - Prisoners' Support and Human Rights Association<br>
PO Box: 17338, Jerusalem.<br>
Ramallah, West Bank.<br>
Tel: +972-2-2960446 Fax: +972-2-2960447<br>
E-mail: addameer@planet.edu<br>
URL:</font><font face="times" size=3 color="#0000FF"><u>
<a href="http://www.addameer.org/" eudora="autourl">http://www.addameer.org/<br><br>
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</a></u></font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
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