An Israeli court has extended for six days the detention of the two activists detained during the boarding last week of the Global Sumud Flotilla in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea and transferred to the country, as confirmed by the Adalah organization, in charge of giving them legal advice in the country.
Adalah pointed out that the Ashkelon court accepted this Tuesday the authorities’ request to extend the detention of Abukeshek and the Brazilian activist Thiago Ávila for six days, so They will remain in custody until at least Sunday, May 10.
“The court’s decision to prolong the detention of humanitarian activists kidnapped in international waters is equivalent to a judicial validation of the State’s illegality,” said the organization, which has announced that it will “immediately appeal” to “challenge this decision and demand the immediate and unconditional release of Thiago and Saif.”
No charges have been filed against them yet.
Hadil Abu Salí and Lubna Tuma, Adalah lawyers who represent the two activists, argued during the hearing that the accusations against both are “unfounded” and that there are no legal reasons for them to continue being detained. In fact, the organization has highlighted thatThe authorities have not yet filed charges against them. and that the objective of their remaining in custody is to continue the interrogations.
Thus, he explained that the prosecutor presented in a preview a list of alleged crimes that would include “assisting the enemy in a period of war”, “contacting a foreign agent”, “providing service to a terrorist organization” – in reference to the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) – and “transferring property to a terrorist organization”, also the Palestinian Islamist group.
For this reason, the defense has stated that there is no connection between delivering humanitarian aid to the civilian population through the aforementioned flotilla, which sought to break the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip, and a “terrorist organization”, while arguing that Israeli laws are not applicable because both were “kidnapped” a thousand kilometers from the coast of Gaza and are not citizens of Israel.
Total insulation and cells with high intensity lighting
The lawyers have also alleged that both They remain “in total isolation” and in cells “subject to constant high-intensity lighting,” in addition to being blindfolded “every time they move from place to place, including for medical tests.” Both Abukeshek and Ávila have been on hunger strike and have only been drinking water since the early hours of April 30 to protest “their kidnapping and inhumane treatment.”
Finally, they regretted that, despite all these arguments, Judge Yaniv Ben Haroush approved the authorities’ request, “partly based on evidence that neither the activists nor their lawyers were able to review.” The court’s decision means accepting the request of the Prosecutor’s Office, advanced hours before by Adalah to Europa Press, “without imposing judicial limitations or restrictions on the interrogation period.”
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, challenged this Tuesday the Government of Israel to put the evidence against Abukeshek “on the table” to have carried out his “completely illegal” detention, while pointing out that the allegations that the Israeli authorities have conveyed to him “flatly” deny the accusations leveled against him.
“There is no evidence or connection to what the Israeli authorities say,” The minister has insisted in statements to ‘La hora de La 1’, collected by Europa Press, in which he has also detailed that Saif is “fine” within the “terrible circumstances in which he finds himself.” “No Israeli agent has any jurisdiction in international waters and we demand his immediate release. Saif should not be where he is, in Israeli prisons,” he concluded.
