Ahmad Abu Haniya, the Youth Project Coordinator for the Alternative Information Center, was released from administrative detention on 14 May 2007, after two years of imprisonment without any trial or formal charges being brought against him.
Ahmad was detained at an Israeli military checkpoint on his way to work on 18 May 2005 and placed in administrative detention, which is imprisonment without charge or trial. As with all of the approximately 800 Palestinian administrative detainees currently being held by Israel, Ahmad and his attorney were not even permitted to know the accusations against him.
During his time in prison, Ahmad was adopted as an appeal case by Amnesty International, and supported by the American National Lawyers Guild.
The detention of Ahmad and so many other Palestinians, blatantly violates international humanitarian law, which permits administrative detention only as an exceptional and highly regulated measure. Administrative detention violates the fundamental right to liberty and due process, and has been used by Israel as a tool to oppress political activists in Palestine who struggle non-violently against the Israeli occupation and for a just peace between Palestinians and Israelis.
We spoke with Ahmad on the 21st of May, one week after his release from prison, at the offices of the AIC in Beit Sahour.
To listen to the podcast: http://www.alternativenews.org/podcasts/podcasts/news-from-within-podcast-the-experience-of-administrative-detention-prisoners-in-israel-20070531.html
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