Palestinian hunger striker detained on hospital release

Mohammed Allaan immediately arrested after his release from the hospital where he has been receiving treatment.

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Protesters hold posters of Mohammed Allaan at a rally for the hunger striker [Abbas Momani / AFP]

Israeli authorities have detained Palestinian hunger striker Mohammed Allaan immediately after he was released from the hospital where he was receiving medical care following his two-month hunger strike in an Israeli jail.

Allaan’s condition had improved enough for him to be discharged, the Barzilai hospital in southern Israel said earlier on Wednesday.

His lawyer, Jamil Khatib, said that shortly after Allaan left the hospital, he was detained again by Israeli authorities and immediately resumed his hunger strike.

Israel suspends detention of Palestinian hunger striker

On Tuesday the Israeli Supreme Court suspended Allaan’s administrative detention order due to his medical condition but stated that if his neurological condition was found irreversible, his detention order would be made void.

Israel accuses the 31-year-old Allaan of links to the Islamic Jihad group. Allaan, who is a trained lawyer, denies the affiliation.

His lawyer said that the renewed detention was illegal since it did not include a review of the case. Khatib said that his client has suffered brain damage and that he will appeal his case in the court.

Allaan’s case tested a new Israeli law allowing fasting inmates to be force-fed, a measure that many doctors say amounts to torture. It also cast light on Israel’s use of administrative detention — the holding of suspects in special cases for long periods without charge.

According to the Israeli civil rights advocacy group B’Tselem, “Administration detention is detention without charge or trial that is authorised by administrative order rather that by judicial decree. Israeli’s use of administrative detention blatantly violates the restrictions of international law”.

During his prolonged hunger strike, Allaan was not force-fed, which entails inserting a feeding tube into his stomach. He was, however, given intravenous fluids, vitamins and nutrients as his condition deteriorated.

The Arab civil rights group Adalah, which operates in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian territories which had petitioned the court on Allaan’s behalf, said the new arrest was a “random and vindictive act” that had nothing to do with the evidence required to keep him in administrative detention.

 

Source: Al Jazeera, AP