The Geneva Council for Rights and Liberties ( GCRL) expresses its grave concern that the Palestinian security services continue to detain 19 people from the town of Urif in Nablus for 85 days in Jericho prison and demands their release or a fair trial.
According to the council’s follow-up, in mid-May, the Palestinian security services arrested 22 citizens from the town of Urif in Nablus, and subjected them to interrogation, torture, and abuse, claiming that they participated in the burning of a police headquarters during protests in the town on May14.
The detainees were transferred to Jericho prison, which is run by the Security Committee, and their families complained of being subjected to severe torture, including shabeh in different positions, severe beatings, and electric shocks. Some of them reached the courtroom in poor health, knowing that their detention was extended several times despite the lack of any evidence confirming the accusations against them. The Magistrate’s Court in Nablus issued acquittal decisions for some of the detainees, and the security services delayed their release, and later three of the detainees were released and the rest remained in constant detention, despite some of them engaging in repeated hunger strikes.
The security services have recently suppressed a peaceful sit-in for the detainees’ families in Nablus and forced them to break it up by force. The Geneva Council expresses its fear that the detention of Urif’s detainees is political and not linked to the burning of the police station, especially with the torture they were subjected to, the ongoing delay in their trial procedures, and fears of the lack of guarantees for a fair trial.
Accordingly, the Council calls on the Palestinian Public Prosecution to open a serious and transparent investigation into the allegations of torture, abuse, and degrading conditions of detention, and to hold those responsible accountable.
It also calls for the release of the detainees, or their presentation to a fair trial away from politicization and security intimidation. The detainees are: Seif el-Din Mustafa Safadi, Muhammad Mustafa Safadi, Mahmoud Abdel Karim Safadi, Louay Adel Saadeh Sabah, Osama Hafez Saadeh Sabah, Khaled Mustafa Sabah and Yassin Kayed Sabah, Mahmoud Youssef Salman Safadi, Hudhayfah Anwar Abdel Hafeez Shehadeh, Amin Hussein Kayed Sabah, Majed Daoud Hassan Safadi, Muhammad Hassan Daoud Safadi, Awad Abdel Rahman Shehadeh, Sami Hussein Atta Sabah, Mareb Faeq Safadi, Hamdallah Abdel Karim Safadi and Mahmoud Walid Safadi, Jarrah Muhammad Kokash, and Qutaiba Samir Sabah.
