Arab Organisation for Human Rights in the UK (AOHR UK) stressed that Palestinian security services work on doubling the suffering of citizens via security attacks and arbitrary arrests, without taking into account the ongoing repressive practices of the Israeli occupation forces.
Despite releasing her on bail then having an acquittal court order, the preventive security services appealed the court decision in order to rearrest Alaa Al-Bashir.
Bashir’s family told AOHR UK that “She was arrested in May 2019 by the Preventive Security Service in Qalqilya from Othman bin Affan Mosque. She was charged of inciting sectarian conflict on the Internet and was released on bail two months later.
Less than two days later, we received a phone call from an officer of the occupation forces summoning her to appear before him at the Military Liaison Office on July 24, 2019. Upon her arrival, she was detained on the same charge again for eight months, during which she suffered from continuous ill-treatment and abuse”.
“During her detention by the occupation forces, she was acquitted in one of the cases in which she was accused by the Palestinian Authority without informing us.
After her release, she was acquitted of the other case on November 28, 2020, but Preventive Security appealed the ruling on December 24, 2020 and set her hearing on February 15, 2021 to consider this appeal”, the family added.
In a related context, on Saturday, February 13, a security member of the Preventive Security in Qalqilya, attacked the citizen Abdel Nasser Adnan Rabi, 51, after attempting to provoke him.
Abdel Nasser told AOHR UK, “I was inside my grocery store when a force from the Preventive Security Service asked me to close the shop claiming that this was against the law as it is after 7pm; yet they did not ask any other store for to close their shops”
“I agreed to close the shop, but they insisted on issuing a material violation, tying my hands and taking me to the Qalqilya police station, and when I refused, they brutally beat me and took me by force to the police station. When I got in there, the officer in charge asked me to pay a material fine of 50 dollars in exchange for releasing me and on the condition that I do not file a report against the security personnel who assaulted me. “ Abdel Nasser added.
AOHR UK affirmed that these violations come as the Palestinian intelligence continues refusing to reveal the fate of the detainee Ibrahim Abed, a student in his final year at the Faculty of Engineering at Al-Najah University, who has been detained for more than two weeks, during which the authority refused to give his family any news about him, allow him to communicate them or appoint a lawyer.
Ibrahim’s family stated that their concerns over his fate increased as they received information of his transfer to Jericho prison and subjecting him to brutal torture there, especially since this prison is notorious for its poor detention conditions and cruel treatment of detainees.
The outcomes of the dialogue between the Palestinian factions in Cairo must be reflected in the human rights situation and freedoms as well as ending the violations of the security services immediately.
Accordingly, all forms of arrests must be stopped, and all political detainees must be released in order to prevent the security services from fabricating criminal charges against the opposition, with aims of practicing further repressive practices against them.
AOHR UK called on the European Union, as a supporter of the Palestinian security services, to put pressure on the Palestinian Authority to stop its repressive practices against its citizens, as it is unacceptable that the Palestinian people suffer twice; once at the hands of the occupation forces and another at the hands of the Palestinian authorities which is supposed to protect their rights, freedoms and security.
