Israeli occupation extends Palestinian teen’s detention without charge or trial

Occupied Palestine (QNN)- Israeli occupation authorities this week renewed the administrative detention of a Palestinian teenager for an additional four-month period adding to more than 300 days of imprisonment without charge or trial.

On Feb. 13, an Israeli military court judge approved a four-month administrative detention order that was issued by Israeli military officials against 18-year-old Mohammad Ghassan Ahmad Mansour, according to information gathered by Defense for Children International – Palestine.

This latest order is set to expire on June 6, 2022, and is the third consecutive administrative detention order issued by Israeli authorities against Mansour.

Mansour is currently detained in Israel’s Megiddo prison in the north of the occupied West Bank.

“Israeli authorities must file charges against Palestinian children or release them,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, accountability program director at DCIP.

“Administrative detention must never be used to detain children and amounts to a clear violation of fundamental due process rights. Israeli authorities must immediately end the arbitrary detention of Palestinian administrative detainees,” he added.

Israeli forces detained Mansour, then 17, during a night raid on his home in Jenin in the northern occupied West Bank on April 9, 2021.

He was detained for 15 days at Israel’s Huwwara detention center in the northern occupied West Bank in conditions that Mohammad and other children have described as inhumane, based on documentation collected by DCIP.

An Israeli judge at Israel’s Ofer military court approved a six-month administrative detention order against Mansour on April 25, 2021.

A second administrative detention order was approved on October 7, 2021, for an additional four-month period. That second order expired on February 7, 2022, according to documentation gathered by DCIP.

Israeli occupation authorities currently hold at least two other Palestinian teenagers pursuant to administrative detention orders, which amounts to arbitrary detention, according to documentation collected by DCIP.

However, since October 2015, DCIP has documented a total of 41 Palestinian children held by Israeli occupation authorities pursuant to administrative detention orders.

Administrative detention is a form of imprisonment without charge or trial regularly used by Israeli occupation authorities to detain Palestinians, including children. Palestinian children held under administrative detention orders are not presented with charges, and their detention is based on secret evidence that is neither disclosed to the child nor their attorney, preventing them from preparing a legal challenge to the detention and its alleged basis.

Administrative detention orders are issued by the Israeli military commander of the area, or a military officer delegated by the military commander, and can last up to six months, but there is no limit to the number of times an administrative detention order can be renewed.

The orders are approved by military court judges giving the illusion of independent legal oversight, yet Israeli military courts fail to meet international standards for independence and impartiality because military court judges are active duty or reserve officers in the Israeli military.

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