IOA holds MP Salhab in administrative detention

[ 10/03/2011 - 09:28 AM ]

AL-KHALIL, (PIC)-- The Israeli Ofer court on Wednesday sentenced Palestinian MP Dr. Azzam Salhab to six months administrative detention without his presence in court, his family said. They told the PIC reporter that the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) told Salhab that he would be sentenced to administrative custody during his detention in Etzion a couple of days ago and was not transferred to Ofer to attend the summary court hearing. They added that his lawyer Anwar Abu Amr said that the court told him of the sentence in the absence of Salhab and the lawyer himself. The IOA arrested the lawmaker a week ago while on his way back home from Nablus where he was visiting a friend to console him over the death of his father. The international campaign for the release of Palestinian deputies in IOA jails condemned the ruling in a statement on Wednesday night. It said that the IOA was not content with unlawfully kidnapping Palestinian MPs but was also subjecting them to summary trials. The IOA has re-detained eight Hamas MPs, who were released from earlier administrative detention, over the past few weeks and ordered them administratively held anew. The campaign called on world parliaments to put an end to Israel's violation of the parliamentary immunity of those MPs and to force it to respect the international law and human rights principles.