Geneva - The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor sent letters on Thursday, 31 October 2019 to parliamentary groups at the European Union and member states of the United Nations, urging them to exert pressure on the Israeli authorities to release two Jordanian citizens who were detained separately in September and August.

The Euro-Med Monitor sent letters to members of the Parliamentary Relations Committee with Israel in the European Parliament and the UN team on arbitrary detention, explaining the tragic circumstances of the detention of Jordanian youth Abdel Rahman Mer’i and Jordanian girl Heba al-labadi.

The Euro-Med Monitor expressed its deep concern over the conditions of detention of Mar’i, a cancer patient, and al-labadi, who has been on a hunger strike for 38 days, both were placed under administrative detention for varying periods.

The Israeli forces arrested Mar’i, 29, from the Alenby Bridge Crossing, after attending a wedding ceremony for a relative in the West Bank on September 2^nd. Al-labadi, 32 was arrested while travelling with her mother and aunt to attend her cousin’s wedding in the West Bank on August 20.

The Euro-Med Monitor said that al-labadi’s lawyer finally revealed that she had been subjected to semi-naked searches before she was blindfolded, handcuffed and chained, as she was transferred to an Israeli military base.

The Euro-Med Monitor added that al-labadi was transferred to the Russian Compound first and then to the Petah Tikva Detention Center, both of which are described by local Palestinian human rights centers as "human slaughterhouses."

Al-labadi’s lawyer told Euro-Med Monitor  that his client had been subjected to "continuous interrogation from about nine AM until five AM the next day with the interrogation lasting for about 35 days in very harsh conditions."

He stated that Al-labad had been subjected to violent psychological torture, as she sat in the interrogation room from 9-5 AM on a chair bound and handcuffed; which caused her severe back, hands and neck pain, while interrogators screamed and spit at her, calling her "despicable, unsuccessful, insect and ugly."

The Euro-Med Monitor said that on September 24, the Israeli intelligence refused to release al-labadi, and an Israeli military court confirmed her administrative detention for five months, without a public indictment. The Euro-Med Monitor pointed out that al-labadi was brought on October 8 to the prison’s clinic’s doctor who found that she suffers from a rapid heartbeat, a severe lack of salts, and severe stomach aches, refusing and at first to give her salt.

The Israeli Prison Service (IPS) transferred al-Labadi to the Bnai Zion Medical Center in Haifa, northern Israel, with her hands and legs shackled, following her inability to drink water on October 24. Five days later, the Israeli authorities returned the Jordanian detainee to Kishon Detention Center and on Wednesday October 30, they took her back to the hospital as her health deteriorated.

In the same context, Mer’’s family said that he is in an urgent need of intensive medical follow-up and periodic medical examinations as he has been suffering from cancer in the fat cells of the face since 2010.

According to his family, the Israeli authorities did not allow him to have medical examinations or any therapeutic doses, deliberately medically neglecting him which could lead to his death at any moment.

In October, an Israeli court placed Mer’i under administrative detention for four months.

"Administrative detention is used by the Israeli judicial authorities as a tool of punishment and intimidation without any pretext or legal justification at a time the international community continues to remain silent on Israeli violations," said Mohammed Imad, a legal researcher at Euro-Med Monitor.

Imad added that arbitrary and administrative detention is prohibited in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations, as it absolutely prohibits in Article IX any arbitrary restriction of the freedoms of individuals, and states that "No person may be arrested, detained or exiled.” Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights prohibits arbitrary arrest or detention, and states that "No one shall be deprived of his liberty except on such grounds and in accordance with such procedure as are established by law."

The Euro-Med Monitor called on the UN, its agencies and the European Parliament to exert pressure on the Israeli authorities to end the unconditional detention of the two Jordanian nationals and to return them to their families immediately, as well as to end the administrative detention policy.