SYRIZA MEP's question to the European Commission

Greek member of European Parliament asks the Commission about Ahmad Saadat

November 11, 2009

A Greek member of the European Parliament, Nikos Hountis, of SYRIZA (The Coalition of the Radical Left), asked the European Commission, the 27-member executive body charged with implementing the decisions of the European Parliament, about the case of the Palestinian prisoners and, in particular, the release of Ahmad Sa'adat, on November 11, 2009.

On September 4, 2008, the European Parliament passed a resolution calling for the release of all of the imprisoned Palestinian parliamentarians and expressed concern for Palestinian prisoners' human rights. Referring to that resolution, Hountis directed his question to the Commission, focusing on the case of Sa'adat and calling for action.

This is the text of the question:

"The Member of Parliament of the Palestinian Legislative Council and General Secretary of the PFLP, Ahmad Saadat, has been imprisoned since 2006 in Israeli jails. Since the beginning of 2009, he is being held in a special unit of solitary confinement in the Ramon prison, where he is deprived from fundamental human rights: the visits by members of his family or by his lawyer and communication with fellow prisoners are prohibited, his private belongings have been confiscated, and he is obliged to go to the yard handcuffed. On October 10, 2009, by decision of the military court of Bir Saba his solitary confinement has been extended for 6 more months.

"According to the Resolution of the European Parliament of September 4, 2008 about the condition of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails (P6_TA(2008)0404) "more than 11,000 Palestinians, among them hundreds of women and children, are being held in prisons and detention centers [...] that, according to human rights organizations are being summoned to torture [...] It is often impossible or very difficult for the vast majority of the Palestinian prisoners, to exercise their right, to receive family visitors. [...]" As it is underlined in the Resolution, the issue of prisoners has significant political, social and humanitarian consequences, while the arrest of 48 elected MPs of the PLC, along other elected members of municipalities, has significant effects on the political development in the occupied Palestinian Territories.

"The Commission is being asked, what are the actions that it has taken in order to implement this Resolution and secure the freedom of the Palestinian MP Ahmad Sa'adat?"