Israeli authorities sentenced 18 Palestinians to administrative detention — imprisonment without charge or trial– at Israel’s Ofer military court on Thursday.
According to a statement released by the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS), all of the prisoners received detention orders for between three to six months, which can be renewed by Israeli authorities after their completion.
PPS reported that 10 Palestinian prisoners were ordered to administrative detention for four months. Six prisoners were sentenced to administrative detention for six months. Israeli authorities also issued three-month sentences for two prisoners.
The Israeli military court at Ofer issued 20 more administrative detention orders for the imprisonment of… https://t.co/JAxywXcH5C
— michael park custer (@creatureonarock) August 27, 2017
Prisoners’ rights group Addameer considers administrative detention, which allows Israeli authorities to imprison someone without disclosing any evidence against them, to be a form of “arbitrary detention” and “psychological torture.”
Rights groups and activists have long pointed out that Israel’s use of administrative detention has been used as a tool by Israel to detain Palestinians without justification. The policy is almost exclusively used against Palestinians.
According to Addameer, 6,279 Palestinians were imprisoned by Israel as of August, 465 of whom were administrative detainees. The group has estimated that some 40 percent of Palestinian men will be detained by Israel at some point in their lives.
(Maan, PC, Social Media)
