GENEVA(National Times)- A UN human rights body on Monday called Israel\u2019s detention of Gazan doctor Hussam Abu Safiya arbitrary and urged his immediate release, as rights groups and his lawyer warned that his life was in imminent danger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In its finding, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said that Israel\u2019s actions contravened multiple articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as well as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe appropriate remedy would be to release Mr Abu Safiya immediately and accord him an enforceable right to compensation and other reparations,\u201d it said. The panel also raised broader concerns, saying the case one of several submitted to it may indicate a widespread or systematic practice of arbitrary detention in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Israel Prison Service and the Israeli diplomatic mission in Geneva did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Israel did not respond to the UN working group when approached about the case in July last year, it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
MENA Rights Group, which filed the complaint, said the 52-year-old paediatrician and director of Gaza\u2019s Kamal Adwan hospital has been held since December 2024. It said he has faced repeated solitary confinement, lengthy interrogations and beatings with batons and electric shock sticks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Earlier on Monday, his lawyer Nasser Odeh said via a prisoners\u2019 group that his health was in grave danger and that he had been subjected to daily abuse. Video footage of him from a Supreme Court hearing last month showed him looking visibly thinner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf Dr Abu Safiya dies in that cell, it will be murder, and everyone who had the power to stop it \u2014 and did nothing \u2014 will be complicit,\u201d said Steve Cutts, CEO of charity Medical Aid for Palestinians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Israel Prison Service previously rejected allegations that Abu Safiya and other doctors have been mistreated in prison. Last month, Israel\u2019s Supreme Court rejected an appeal to release him. It based its decision on \u201cconfidential materials\u201d under a law for so-called unlawful combatants which also allows detention for indefinitely renewable periods..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
GENEVA(National Times)- A UN human rights body on Monday called Israel\u2019s detention of Gazan doctor Hussam Abu Safiya arbitrary and urged his immediate release, as rights groups and his lawyer warned that his life was in imminent danger. In its finding, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said that Israel\u2019s actions contravened multiple articles […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128928,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-128927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n