2017-02-12

Ramallah

Human Rights Defenders / West Bank

His Excellency Public Prosecutor
Dr. Ahmad Barrak,

Subject: The Detention of Sami Saeed Abed Al-Saa’i/ Artah/ Tulqarm

MUSAWA – The Palestinian Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession extends its best greetings. In reference to the subject above, we inform you that we have received a complaint from the citizen Amany Abdul-Majeed Ali Al-Saa’i, resident of Artah Village in Tulqarm and wife of the aforementioned detainee, journalist and member of the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate. The detainee has worked at several media institutions, in addition to holding an international press card along with the Palestinian one (attached are the relevant documents in writing), and being a member of the Palestinian Human Rights Defenders (PHRDs) Network.

According to the complaint, Tulqarm’s intelligence agency phone-called the detainee on Wednesday 01/02/2017, asking him to appear before the agency on Thursday 02/02/2017, where he was detained. The detainee was referred to Tulqarm’s Magistrate Court, which decided to extend his detention period for an extra 15 days under the charge of incite. The detainee’s lawyer, Walid Abdul-Salam Al-Jundab, submitted a release-on-bail request at the same court, after which it was decided that he will be released on 1000 JOD bail plus fees, on Tuesday 07/02/2017.

The complainant added that the detainee’s family did as the court asked. They paid the fees and the bail, and they received a court order to release the detainee. On the morning of Wednesday 08/02/2017, the family headed to Tuqarm’s intelligence headquarters, where Sami is detained. The officer told them that they are well-informed of the release order and that they will implement it by releasing the detainee on that day.

In the complaint, it says that Tulqarm’s intelligence agency did not abide by the court’s judgment and the order to release the detainee, despite the fact that the family stayed in touch with the agency for the release purposes. The intelligence agency claimed at times that the competent director is not present, and at other times that the present officer has no clue about the issue. Things went on like this until the family was informed by the agency that the detainee was transferred to Jericho’s prison, without presenting any justifications for that.

The complainant went on saying that the family was informed by representatives of Civil Society Organizations, some of whom visited the detainee in Tulqarm’s prison while others communicated with your Excellency, where you said that Jericho’s Magistrate Court passed a judgment of extending the detention period to another 15 days under a different charge. Neither the intelligence agency nor the Public Prosecution told the family about the detainee’s transfer to Jericho’s Magistrate. Also, they contacted the family regarding his detention in Jericho’s prison only after the detention was initiated and the judgment to extend the detention period was pronounced y Jericho’s Magistrate. Accordingly, the family was no able to duly appoint a defense counsel, which represents a prejudice to fair trial guarantees and a violation of the right to counsel. Needless to say, the procedure of transferring the detainee to Jericho’s prison involves several violations of the provisions of the Penal Procedure Law whereby it is prohibited to keep an indictee whose release was passed in detention based on information or accusations that officers invested with judicial powers or the Public Prosecution were aware-of while they could have listed them against the indictee and asked the same judge who passed the release judgment not to respond to the release request. Furthermore, the jurisdictional rules provided in the Penal Procedure Law were overridden; the case may not be transferred to another court as long as the court has jurisdiction in the place of the accused or the victim, or the place where the crime or any of its elements was committed. None of this was applied to the detainee’s case.

We, MUSAWA and the PHRDs Network, believe that the contents of the complaint -if true- lodged by Amany Al-Saa’i, Sami Al-Saa’i’s wife, involve a prejudice to the citizen’s rights and the rule of law, and do great damage to the detainee as he is deprived of his right to counsel, in addition to deviating from the jurisdictional rules by unlawfully keeping Sami in detention. The law requires that he be released, and in case new reasons arise for his detention once more officer invested with judicial powers may summon him following his release, just like he was summoned the first time by Tulqarm’s intelligence agency. All this could lead to the invalidity of his detention.

We hope that your Excellency will examine all of the details, circumstances and procedures related to the detention of the journalism Sami Al-Saa’i, and releasing him by issuing a decision or asking the court that passed the detention judgment to do so as soon as possible, knowing that the detainee is the breadwinner for his family, consisting of him, his wife and their three children, the oldest of whom is nine years old and suffers from kidney failure.

With all due respect,

Issued on 12/02/2017          

                         MUSAWA

Attachments:

– Certificate by the PJS.

– Local and international press cards.

– Medical report for the detainee’s son.