On Monday, June 6, 2022, the Israeli Occupation Authorities (IOA) extended the detention of the Palestinian-French lawyer Salah Hammouri for three months for the second time in a row, just one day before his release.
Jerusalem-born-and-bred Palestinian lawyer and human rights advocate Salah Hammouri was arrested in March 2017 from his family house in Kafr Aqab town, north of occupied Jerusalem. He was placed under administrative detention for three months, which is supposed to end this morning.
Hammouri works as a field researcher at the Addameer Palestinian rights group, He spent nearly nine years in Israeli jails in separate arrests. He was denied entry into the occupied West Bank for more than two years.
Hammouri’s pregnant French wife Elsa was refused entry to occupied Jerusalem in 2016 despite having a work visa.
Last October, Israeli authorities notified the 36-year-old Palestinian-French human rights defender of the revocation of his permanent residency status in occupied Jerusalem for a “breach of allegiance to the State of Israel”.
In November 2021, Front Line Defenders revealed that the phones of six rights activists, including Hammouri, were hacked with Pegasus spyware.
In October, the French Foreign Ministry called for Hammouri’s rights to “be respected” and expressed hope for his release, saying that, “the systematic and abusive use of administrative detention undermines the right to a fair trial and the right to a defense.”
Hammouri is held in administrative detention without charge or trial for an indefinite period of time.
4,600 Palestinians are currently held in Israeli jails, including 31 women, 172 minors, 682 administrative detainees, 500 sick prisoners, 551 prisoners serving life sentences, and 214 prisoners detained for more than 20 years.
