Palestine: Blind Imam Released after 20 Months in Administrative Detention

Alkarama welcomed the release, on 11 January 2016, of Ali Mustafa Ahmad Hanoon, a blind Palestinian Imam arrested by Israeli soldiers in May 2014. Ali Mustafa was arbitrarily held in administrative detention for 20 months before being released. During his detention, Alkarama seized both the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) on 19 June 2015 and the Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with Disabilities (SP Disabilities) on 18 September 2015, urging these United Nations Special Procedures for the protection of human rights to call on the Israeli authorities to immediately release him and to refrain from using the discriminatory practice of administrative detention to arbitrarily detain Palestinians for prolonged periods of time.

Arrest and prolonged administrative detention

50-year-old Ali Mustafa was abducted from his home in Ramallah on 15 May 2014 by several Israeli soldiers who did not present an arrest warrant or informed him of the reasons for his arrest. Taken to Ofer Prison, known for its "systematic torture and ill-treatment of Palestinian prisoners, including child prisoners, held in solitary confinement," where he remained until 5 June 2014, he was then transferred to Ktzi'ot Prison, the world's biggest detention centre.

Immediately after his arrest, an administrative order stated that Ali Mustafa was to stay in administrative detention for five months. The order was however renewed several times without justification and without any possibility for him to challenge his unlawful detention, the last time on 14 September 2015.

It is only four additional months later, on 11 January 2016, that Ali Mustafa was released and able to reunite with his family, particularly worried over the fact that he is not given adequate conditions of detention in view of his disability. With his hands and feet cuffed every time he is to move inside or outside the prison, he never received the assistance he needed, therefore facing extreme mobility issues.

Frequent use of administrative detention by Israeli authorities

Although Ali Mustafa has already been arrested seven times on the basis of administrative orders, he has never been formally charged or officially brought before a judge, nor has his lawyer ever been able to access his file for "secrecy" reasons. Such practices are regularly authorised by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) in the occupied Palestinian West Bank on the basis of article 285 of Military Order 1651, which opens up for up to six-month administrative detention with unlimited renewals when there is a reason to believe that the area's security is threatened.

Administrative detention is not in itself contrary to international law, but in order to be justified, the practice must be limited to emergency situations in which the Nation is under threat and detainees must be able to challenge their detention before a judge during a fair hearing. In the case of Ali Mustafa like in the case of too many other Palestinian civilians, however, this kind of detention is used extensively to punish and control the population − in his case, it is highly likely that his continued judicial harassment is aimed at punishing him for his activities as an influential Imam. Moreover, most Palestinian detainees are not given the possibility to challenge their detention in front of an independent judge, their fate being discretionarily determined by the occupying power's administration.

Alkarama therefore welcomes the release of Ali Mustafa, but remains concerned over the abusive use of administrative detention by Israeli authorities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) and urges the Israeli authorities both to refrain from any further judicial harassment of Ali Mustafa Ahmad Hanoon and to end the systematic practice of detaining Palestinians on administrative orders without charges or judicial trial, in complete violation of international law.

For more information or an interview, please contact the media team at media@alkarama.org (Dir: +41 22 734 1008)