PA security services continue to detain Ahmed Noah Harish for the 18th consecutive day. During his detention, he suffered brutal torture, according to his family.
At a 13 June trial session, Ahmed Harish showed the court signs of torture on his body. However, the court extended his detention.
Mufeed Zallum, Harish’s father-in-law, has said he was “shaken, scared, confused, with hands cuffed behind his back. Signs of torture were visible on his wrists and feet.”
Harish has previously been detained by Israeli occupation forces.
In a video statement, Zallum said “He [Harish] told his sister Asmaa that he has never been tortured so badly in his life. For those who do not know Ahmed, he was detained in Israeli occupation prisons for over five years.”
“When Ahmed spoke to the judge, he wept bitterly. When he [the judge] asked him why he was crying, he said that he had been ‘severely tortured’. The judge asked him about the details of what had happened to him, and he [Harish] said that a week ago he had been beaten all over his body, and that he had been hung from the ceiling by his hands.”
In the same session, Harish reported that he had been beaten with sticks on the tips of his fingers, that he had been restrained such that his back was hurt, and that his feet had been weighted down and also beaten.
And, Zallum added, “when the judge asked Ahmed to show him signs of torture, his wrists and ankles were marked by the cuffs. When the judge asked him if there were other marks on his body, Ahmed said that he had not seen his body for a week, since he had been blindfolded over the whole period [of his detention].’
The court rejected Harish’s defense’s request to release him, even with the assurance of his attending court sessions and despite several exceptional circumstances, including his father’s ill health and his wife being pregnant.
Political arrests and summons made by PA security increased hugely in 2021 compared with 2020.
