Press
Release
May
19,2005
Khaled Abdel-Karim Attallah
Wahbeh
Khaled Wahbeh is a 31 year
old Palestinian from Rafah-Gaza, who gave up his English teaching
career to join the Palestinian Police in May 1994. On
May 15, 1995 he
was arrested by the Palestinian Military Intelligence, ruled by chief of
Military Intelligence Moussa Arrafat, and detained without charge or trial until
23 November
1995.
During this period he was interrogated by the civil and
criminal police and was severely beaten to the extent that two ribs and a leg
were broken, in addition to bruising him and impairing his hearing
abilities.
On
December 7, 1995
he was rearrested by the Palestinian Military Intelligence and was detained by
them without a trial or even being charged with any
offence.
His
father Abdel-Karim, who was permitted to visit him every fortnight for only ten
minutes, was told that his son had been held for collaboration with
Israel.
At
the end of 1997, Khaled Wahbeh went on hunger strike protesting against his
detention. He only started eating again when he was promised to be released in
Ramadan of 1998. The Palestinian Authority broke this promise and Khaled
remained in prison.
On
March 24, 1999 an appeal was made to the Palestinian High Court in
Gaza for the release of Khaled Wahbeh on the
grounds that his detention was unlawful. The appeal was upheld and the High
Court in
Gaza ordered his immediate release, however, as
in numerous other cases similar to Khaled’s, the order was ignored and Khaled
remained in prison.
Today,
Khaled Wahbeh is free and no longer in
prison. He was released in the 15th of this month. Mr.Moussa Arrafat,
who was one of the arbitrators of human rights violations, is also no longer
chief of Palestinian Military Intelligence. He was dismissed from his duties by
the new Palestinian Chairman Mr. Mahmoud Abbas.
One
important step in the reforms done by Mr. Mahmoud Abbas is the dismissing of a
generation such as Mr. Moussa Arrafat and his likes who violate the Palestinian
law and the international human rights standards.
PHRMG encourages the Palestinian Authority to continue
moving forward with positive and constructive reforms and to release more
prisoners who have been taken in for long term imprisonment without charges or
fair trials.
PHRMG also demands from
the Ministry of Justice that it compensates Khaled and his family
and everyone else who have been in this unlawful and unjustified
situation.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group
(PHRMG) is a Palestinian, independent,
non-governmental organization working to end human rights violations committed
against Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and
East Jerusalem, regardless of those responsible. The
members of the Monitoring Group believe that the strength of democracy and civil
society in Palestinian society will be determined by the Palestinian people,
through their defense or neglect of human rights.
Ragheb Nashashibi
Street 5
Sheikh Jarrah-Jerusalem
P.O. Box 19918
East
Jerusalem
91198
http://www.phrmg.org/
tel. 972-2-582-3372/3
fax. 972-2-582-3385