Palestine: 18 month sentence to Al-quds reporter

Media outlets in Palestine described the ruling as illegitimate and questioned the jurisdiction of the military court over the case.

Abu Zaid, 37, of Jenin city, north of the West Bank, and a graduate of the college of fine arts at Al-Najah University had been working in the media field for 13 years. He was arrested three months ago at the hands of the PA intelligence department where he was subjected to torture.

The PA intelligence department ignored two court orders for his immediate release for being held without charges. He was arrested twice by Abbas’s militias for the same reason.

His family condemned the ruling, stressing their son committed no crime to be prosecuted before a military court. “He worked in Al-Aqsa channel … is this a crime?”, his family questioned.

The Aqsa satellite TV channel described the indictment as a “flagrant crime” against the simplest rights of a journalist, stressing that the participation of the PA judiciary in that crime constitutes a very serious turning point in the path of the Palestinian judiciary. “They should stop this farce”, the channel demanded.

In a related matter, Palestinian legislators from the Islamic bloc in the Tulkarem governorate deprecated the detention of Palestinian journalist Yazid Khadr in the jails of Abbas for 70 days now without justified reasons.

In a statement they issued in this regard, the MPs warned that such PA practices against Palestinian citizens for their political affiliation does not help benefit in achieving national reconciliation.

“The Abbas and Fatah faction are calling for elections, but how can we hold honest and transparent elections in an atmosphere full of repression, arbitrary detention, suppression of freedom, and dismissal from work on intellectual orientations?”, the lawmakers asked.