Palestine: Reporter Mohammad Al-Qeeq Released after Six Months in Administrative Detention
On 19 May 2016, 34-year-old Palestinian journalist at Al Majd TV Mohammad Al-Qeeq was released after six months spent in administrative detention. Concerned over the fact that Al-Qeeq was detained on the sole basis of his work as a reporter, Alkarama seized on 15 January 2016 the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression (SR FRDX), David Kaye, asking him to urgently intervene with the Israeli authorities to request his immediate release.
On 21 November 2015, Al-Qeeq was arrested from his home north of Ramallah by Israeli soldiers before being taken to the Al Jalame prison, northern Israel, and accused of "inciting violence through the media" for his work as a journalist. Al-Qeeq was detained incommunicado for 20 days after his arrest, until he was allowed to briefly contact his lawyer. He reported him having been severely tortured, including by being exposed to extreme high and low temperatures as well as sleep and food deprivation.
To protest against his arrest and ill-treatment, Al-Qeeq started on 25 November 2015 a hunger strike which lasted 93 days. Due to his worsening health condition, he was transferred on 10 January 2016 to the Afula hospital and was subjected to force feeding, a practice that the United Nations Special Rapporteur against Torture (SRT) has repeatedly urged Israel to stop, as it amounts to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, if not torture.
Although accused of "inciting violence through the media," Al-Qeeq was never charged nor presented to a judge, but kept in administrative detention, a procedure that allows the Israeli military to hold prisoners indefinitely based on "secret evidence" without charging them or allowing them to stand trial.
Alkarama welcomes the release of Al-Qeeq and hopes Israel will cease all attacks on freedom of expression, opinion and peaceful assembly, which are systematic in Gaza and the West Bank. It is in fact estimated that since October 2015, Israel had detained 43 journalists in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Israel must also put an end to the use of administrative detention, as demanded by the United Nations Committee against Torture (CAT) during the country's last review in May 2016. As of today, more than 600 Palestinians are held in Israeli prisons in administrative detention.
For more information or an interview, please contact media@alkarama.org (Tel : +41 22 734 1008).