An Israeli occupation military court has sentenced the former Gaza head of a major US-based aid agency to 12 years in prison.
Mohamed Al-Halabi, 45, who has already been jailed for the past six years during court proceedings, was sentenced today, Tuesday, August 30, 2022, after the largest trial in the occupation’s history.
He attended 172 court sessions since his arrest in 2016 and is currently held in the Raymond desert prison.
The Israeli occupation systematically violates the rights of Palestinians, including their right to a livelihood. It even prevents them from receiving humanitarian aid, closing down aid organizations and prosecuting its workers, claiming that they pose a danger to the occupation.
On June 15, 2016, occupation forces arrested Al-Halabi on his return from a periodic work meeting with the American World Vision Foundation in their Jerusalem office.
Following his arrest, Al-Halabi was transferred to the Ashkelon interrogation center, where he was interrogated for 52 days.
During this time he was denied access to his lawyer and was subjected to severe physical and psychological torture, as he was pressed to confess to the charges against him. The torture resulted in him losing half of his hearing and caused many other health problems.
Al-Halabi faced pressure to accept a deal to end the case, but he refused. Accordingly, the decision was to convict him
On July 20, 2022, the Israeli occupation prosecution demanded a sentence of 16 years, but his defense lawyer, Maher Hanna, insisted on his immediate release, despite the previous court decision convicting him of a set of charges that he denied.
The occupation authorities accused Al-Halabi, who before his arrest was the director of the American World Vision Foundation in the Gaza Strip, with exploiting his position and delivering the financial resources of the foundation to the Palestinian resistance, which he denied.
The European Union has demanded the “immediate release” of Al-Halabi, stressing that “international law requires that the judicial process be swift, fair and impartial”.
