[Ppnews] Ahmad Sa'adat transferred to isolation in Ramon prison

[Political Prisoner News]

Urgent: Ahmad Sa'adat transferred to isolation in Ramon prison!

August 11, 2009
<http://www.freeahmadsaadat.org/>http://www.freeahmadsaadat.org/

Imprisoned Palestinian national leader Ahmad Sa'adat, the General 
Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was 
transferred on August 11, 2009 to Ramon prison in the Naqab desert 
from Asqelan prison, where he had been held for a number of months. 
He remains in isolation; prior to his transfer from Asqelan, he had 
been held since August 1 in a tiny isolation cell of 140 cm x 240 cm 
after being penalized for communicating with another prisoner in the 
isolation unit.

Attorney Buthaina Duqmaq, president of the Mandela Association for 
prisoners' and detainees' rights, reported that this transfer is yet 
another continuation of the policy of repression and isolation 
directed at Sa'adat by the Israeli prison administration, aimed at 
undermining his steadfastness and weakening his health and his 
leadership in the prisoners' movement. Sa'adat has been moved 
repeatedly from prison to prison and subject to fines, harsh 
conditions, isolation and solitary confinement, and medical neglect. 
Further reports have indicated that he is being denied attorney 
visits upon his transfer to Ramon.

Ahmad Sa'adat undertook a nine-day hunger strike in June in order to 
protest the increasing use of isolation against Palestinian prisoners 
and the denial of prisoners' rights, won through long and hard 
struggle. The isolation unit at Ramon prison is reported to be one of 
the worst isolation units in terms of conditions and repeated 
violations of prisoners' rights in the Israeli prison system.

Sa'adat is serving a 30 year sentence in Israeli military prisons. He 
was sentenced on December 25, 2008 after a long and illegitimate 
military trial on political charges, which he boycotted. He was 
kidnapped by force in a  military siege on the Palestinian Authority 
prison in Jericho, where he had been held since 2002 under U.S., 
British and PA guard.

Sa'adat is suffering from back injuries that require medical 
assistance and treatment. Instead of receiving the medical care he 
needs, the Israeli prison officials are refusing him access to 
specialists and engaging in medical neglect and maltreatment.

The Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat demands an end to this isolation 
and calls upon all to protest at local Israeli embassies and 
consulates (the list is available at: 
<http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/About+the+Ministry/Diplomatic+missions/Web+Sites+of+Israeli+Missions+Abroad.htm>http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/About+the+Ministry/Diplomatic+missions/Web+Sites+of+Israeli+Missions+Abroad.htm) 
and to write to the International Committee of the Red Cross and 
other human rights organizations to exercise their responsibilities 
and act swiftly to demand that the Israelis ensure that Ahmad Sa'adat 
and all Palestinian prisoners receive needed medical care and that 
this punitive isolation be ended. Email the ICRC, whose humanitarian 
mission includes monitoring the conditions of prisoners, at 
<mailto:jerusalem.jer at icrc.org>jerusalem.jer at icrc.org, and inform 
them about the urgent situation of Ahmad Sa'adat!

Ahmad Sa'adat has been repeatedly moved in an attempt to punish him 
for his steadfastness and leadership and to undermine his leadership 
in the prisoners' movement. Of course, these tactics have done 
nothing of the sort. The Palestinian prisoners are daily on the front 
lines, confronting Israeli oppression and crimes. Today, it is urgent 
that we stand with Ahmad Sa'adat and all Palestinian prisoners 
against these abuses, and for freedom for all Palestinian prisoners 
and for all of Palestine!



The Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat

<http://www.freeahmadsaadat.org/>http://www.freeahmadsaadat.org

<mailto:info at freeahmadsaadat.org>info at freeahmadsaadat.org



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415 863-9977

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