Ramallah – Ma’an – The Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs and Ex-Prisoners said that detainees Nasser Al-Shawish (50 years old) from the town of Aqaba, north of Tubas, and Wassim Mleitat (39 years old) from the town of Beit Furik, east of Nablus, are suffering from difficult detention conditions.

The Authority’s lawyer explained, after her last visit to Gilboa Prison, that the condition of the detainee, Al-Shawish, deteriorated significantly after he received the news of his mother’s death on 04/13/2024, and before that the shock of the martyrdom of his brother, the detainee Khaled, in his arms in the Ramla Prison Hospital, who died as a result of being subjected to the crime of deliberate medical negligence on 02/21/2024, as this loss left a great impact on him.

On the health level, the sergeant suffers from many problems in the pelvis and spine, caused by osteoporosis, due to a severe deficiency in Vitamin D. This deficiency is caused by lack of exposure to the sun and high humidity in the prison. During th
e war, all medications were withheld from him.

In addition to the above, several months ago, while being transported by bus from Nafha Prison to Gilboa, the prisoner was subjected to a brutal assault by the prison guards, which caused him fractures in his ribs and rib cage, and he lost most of his upper front teeth as a result.

Regarding the conditions of captivity, the lawyer quotes the prisoner: ‘The beatings and insults are still ongoing, the storming of the rooms and the spraying of tear gas have not stopped, the food is bad and there is no noticeable improvement, we eat from plastic plates and spoons, which are changed once a week, diseases are widespread among the prisoners, especially skin diseases, more than half of the prisoners in all sections have scabies, no medicine or treatment, a single-use shampoo bag is given to the prisoner to use for a week, even the toothbrush was taken from the sections about a month and a half ago, no books or pens, in short the conditions of the prisons have returned
to what they were in the sixties and worse, the prisoners have lost all of their achievements, and the conditions we live in are unbearable for a human being.’

It is worth noting that the sergeant has been detained since 06/02/2002, and was sentenced to life imprisonment four times, and he faced a harsh investigation that lasted more than three months after his arrest.

The prisoner, Sergeant Najlan (Khaled Wahba Allah), was able to see them for the first time in 2005. He was also able to complete his studies while in captivity, and obtained bachelor’s and master’s degrees, and wrote a poetry collection entitled ‘I am the Master of Meaning.’

As for the detainee, Mleitat, he was subjected to severe torture and beatings in Gilboa all over his body, especially his right leg, which swelled and he cannot bend it to this day. The marks of the beating are still visible on his body, as a group of prison guards raided the room where the detainees were being held, and they beat them brutally with their hands and stic
ks for no reason.

“The conditions in Gilboa are very bad,” says Malitat. “Vegetables are served cut and wilted in small and insufficient quantities. Any detainee is prevented from asking for the slightest thing, and if that happens, he is assaulted, as happened with the detainee Amir Azizi from the city of Nablus, who was assaulted because he asked to be moved from the room he was in to another room.”

It is noteworthy that Mleitat was arrested when he was a child at the age of 17, and after his arrest he was subjected to harsh investigation that lasted for more than 68 days, and later the occupation sentenced him to life imprisonment and 30 years. He completed his studies while in captivity, and obtained a high school diploma, and a bachelor’s degree in history from Al-Aqsa University, and political science from Al-Quds University, and he also obtained a master’s degree in regional studies from the same university. He is considered one of the active detainees in the occupation prisons, and they have an impo
rtant intellectual and cognitive role among his fellow detainees, as he contributed many literary and prose writings.

The Commission denounced the seriousness of these practices, and called on international human rights and humanitarian institutions to do their duty to the fullest extent possible, in order to save the lives of detainees, and not leave them prey to this organized crime that is escalating day after day without accountability or supervision.

Source: Maan News Agency