Israeli Court Refuses to End Detention of Al-Qiq Despite Critical Condition

Wednesday, 17 February 2016

Israeli Court Refuses to End Detention of Al-Qiq Despite Critical Condition

Despite the critical condition of Palestinian hunger striker, an Israeli court rejected a petition of Mohammad al-Qiq to be released from the administrative detention.

The Zionist entity’s High Court of Justice said it would not allow the release of al-Qiq, who is in his 84th day of a hunger strike, even as he was close to death's door.

Palestinian hunger striker Mohammad al-Qiq

The court said it had reviewed “classified evidence” showing that he was "unmistakably an active Hamas agent involved in operational terror.”

Rather, it added that "at the end of the day, the petitioner holds the key to his health and well-being in his own hands, he and no other" if he continues to refuse to eat in protest of the administrative detention.

The Palestinian Maan news agency reported Monday that Hanan al-Khatib, a lawyer with the Palestinian Authority Committee for Prisoners’ Affairs, said in a statement that Qiq was suffering sharp pain in his chest and numbness in his face. He is at risk of heart attack, stroke and total systemic failure.

Maan also said that Qiq had begun “shouting loudly, and screaming ‘Let me hear my son’s voice, please God,'” the statement said.

On Tuesday, Qiq refused an offer to be transferred to an eastern al-Quds (Jerusalem) hospital, leaving the issue of his possible freedom hanging in the balance before the High Court of Justice following a heated hearing.

Qiq, 33, had requested through his lawyer that he be transferred to a hospital in Ramallah. He currently is hospitalized in HaEmek Medical Center in Afula.

On Tuesday, Qiq’s attorney told the High Court that the hunger striker rejected the offer to be transferred to al-Makassid, a Palestinian hospital in eastern Jerusalem. Deputy President Elyakim Rubinstein said the High Court would make a decision soon. The High Court had offered its proposal on Monday. The east Jerusalem hospital agreed to receive Qiq if he authorized the transfer.

“There is no difference between Afula and al-Makassid hospital for al-Qiq,” Ahmad Abu Muhammad of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society in Bethlehem told Ma’an.

“If he decides to go to Jerusalem, they will take him, put two or three soldiers by his bed. It will be exactly the same.”

According to occupation military court decisions obtained by the Jerusalem Post, part of the controversy was that Qiq, a known journalist, was extensively questioned by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) without uncovering sufficient evidence to bring him to trial.