Five Palestinian journalists detained in the jails of the Palestinian Authority (PA) intelligence apparatus announced waging an open hunger strike in protest at extending their detention orders on Thursday to various periods.
The PA court of Bethlehem extended the detention orders against two journalists Mamdouh Hamamra and Qutaibah Qasem for the charge of “publishing news that could bring the safety of the state its general regime or its internal or external security to danger”.
According to Quds Press the magistrate court in al-Khalil city extended the detention orders against prisoners Amer Abu Arafa to seven days and journalist Ahmad Halayka to ten days for the same charge. The Nablus district court extended the detention of journalist Tareq Abu Zaid to 15 days pending investigation.
The father of captive Abu Zaid told the PIC reporter that the court did not allow any of the family members to attend the court session that was held on Thursday and confined attending the hearing to the lawyer only.
The Palestinian journalists syndicate condemned the arrest of the five pressmen and described it as an aggression on the freedom of journalism and a violation of the right to freedom of speech.
