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Jerusalem, November 29, 1999
Another academic arrested –
prisoners made to renounce statement under duress
Since our last press
release, we have learned that another academic has been
arrested by the PA because he signed the petition on Friday
27 1999, criticizing Arafat.
Dr. Afif Suleiman Judah was
arrested tonight in his house in Nablus.
A female lecturer at the Al
Najah National University, Ismat Shakshir, was also
summoned last night and interrogated for two hours before
she was released.
All of the 6 prisoners are
held in the Governors office in Nablus. Another 2 are held
in house arrest.
The Palestinian Human
Rights Monitoring Group (PHRMG) is afraid that the arrested
persons will be forced to sign a petition prepared by the
PLC to renounce their previous statements. They are being
made to sign under duress. This is developing to be a case
of severe pressure against the freedom of opinion and
expression, and should prove a very embarrassing situation
for Arafat.
We demand that the Palestinian
Authority will garantee the physical and psychological
integrity of the detainees.
The Palestinian
Human Rights Monitoring Group (PHRMG) calls again for the
immediate release of these prisoners and for the Palestinian
Authority to respect the freedom of speech as expressed in
the Declaration of Human Rights.
We demand
Arafat to implement the recommendations of the report on
corruption that was released by the Palestinian Legislative
Council in July 1997.
The
PHRMG also calls for the international donor community to
put financial pressure on Arafat’s regime in order to
release these prisoners and to make the implementation of
human rights standards and principles possible in the
Palestinian autonomous areas.
For more information, contact the
PHRMG office: Tel: 972 2 6262463, Fax: 972 2 6262378,
E-mail:
admin@phrmg.org
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