JENIN (PIC)– The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) has renewed the administrative detention of Sheikh Khaled Al-Haj one of the Hamas Movement’s leaders in Jenin for the second time without trial or charge.
The wife of Haj said that the IOA handed him a notification on the extension of his detention for six months at the pretext of having a security file against him despite the absence of any charge.
She charged that her husband’s detention was “arbitrary and oppressive” and was legally baseless. Haj was arrested 14 months ago from his home in Jenin.
“My husband spent ten months in jail without trial and then was held in administrative detention” the wife said adding that the Israeli military court turned down his lawyer’s appeal for his release.
Haj who was frequently held in IOA jails in the past was Hamas’s spokesman in Jenin.
In a similar incident the Israeli military court in Ofer cancelled an earlier ruling to release Adli Ya’ish the mayor of Nablus who was slated to be freed by the end of May. Ya’ish was detained since 24/5/2007.
Meanwhile the Israeli higher court in occupied Jerusalem refused demands for the release of Ya’ish’s deputy Mahdi Al-Hanbali who was arrested on 31/5/2007 and was not indicted so far.