Israel extends solitary detention of Palestinian faction leader

An Israeli military court on Thursday ruled to keep a Palestinian faction leader in solitary confinement for another six months, Palestinian sources said.

Ahmed Sa'dat, the secretary general of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), has been held in solitary confinement for more than a year, the PFLP said in a statement today.

The sources said the court, held at Ofar prison near the West Bank city of Ramallah, decided to keep Sa'dat alone to prevent him from influencing other prisoners.

Sa'dat is serving a 30-year sentence for his alleged role in planning the killing of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi at a Jerusalem hotel in October 2001. Israel seized him when its forces raided a Palestinian-run jail in the West Bank city of Jericho in 2006 where Sa'dat was being held as part of an Israeli-Palestinian compromise.

The sources said Sa'dat "doesn't recognize the legitimacy of his tribunal because it is a tool of an illegal occupation."

Meanwhile, Palestinian factions and families of prisoners staged a sit-in protest in Gaza at the time of Sa'dat's trial.

The demonstrators raised posters of Sa'dat and flags of the various Palestinian factions.

Source: Xinhua