Tag: detention

  • Palestinian Journalist Freed From Israeli Custody Abused: Report

    Palestinian Journalist Freed From Israeli Custody Abused: Report

    London-based media outlet The New Arab announced on Tuesday the release of one of its Palestinian journalists from Israeli custody, alleging he faced torture during more than a month in detention.

    Diaa al-Kahlout, who was among dozens of Palestinians shown detained by Israeli troops and stripped to their underwear in north Gaza last month, had been released back into the Palestinian territory, the Qatari-owned outlet said.

    In an report on its website, Kahlout told The New Arab he had faced “indescribably tough and difficult” conditions following his arrest.

    The 37-year-old said he had been beaten and tortured.

    “The moment I was detained, Israeli soldiers crowded round me… before they gagged me with tape so I couldn’t speak.”

    Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has said following his arrest the journalist was briefly held in Eshel prison in Israel and was subjected to torture, according to several of the organisation’s sources.

    The bloodiest ever Gaza war broke out after Hamas gunmen launched their October 7 attack that resulted in about 1,140 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

  • Palestinian, 23, Dies In Israeli Jail: Prison Service

    Palestinian, 23, Dies In Israeli Jail: Prison Service

    A 23-year-old Palestinian prisoner has died in an Israeli jail, the prison service said Monday, adding it was looking into the circumstances of the inmate’s death.

    The prison service in a statement said the man from Nablus in the occupied West Bank had died in Meggido prison, in Israel’s north.

    He was arrested in June 2022 and later sentenced to jail time for “security offences”, the statement said without naming the prisoner.

    “As in all such incidents, the circumstances (of his death) will be examined,” it said.

    The Palestinian Authority’s detainees commission confirmed a prisoner had died but was unable to verify further information.

    The prison service said the inmate was affiliated with Fatah, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s movement.

    Last month Israeli police said they have questioned 19 prison guards as part of an investigation into the death of another Palestinian inmate following allegations of torture.

    According to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, 38-year-old Thaer Abu Assab, from Qalqilya in the West Bank, died in November after being beaten by Israeli prison guards.

    The Public Committee against Torture in Israel said Abu Assab’s death “raises serious suspicion that the IPS (Israel Prison Service) is being transformed from a professional incarceration body to a vindictive and punitive force”.

    “Six prisoners have already died in prison,” the advocacy group said at the time, adding that “all the instances of abuse and death must be investigated immediately”.

    Israel’s prison service announced on October 7 that it had imposed new restrictions on Palestinian detainees.

    Authorities said inmates can no longer leave their cells, there would not be allowed visits, or permitted to buy food from the canteen, nor would they have power in their electrical outlets.

    As of early December, Israeli prisons housed some 7,800 Palestinian detainees, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, an advocacy group that keeps a tally of detainees from annexed east Jerusalem and the West Bank.

  • Islamabad High Court orders Parvez Elahi’s release

    Islamabad High Court orders Parvez Elahi’s release

    The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Sept 5 suspended the detention of PTI President and former chief minister Punjab, Parvez Elahi, under Section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO), ordering his release.

    On Friday, the Lahore High Court (LHC) had ordered that the former Punjab chief minister be released.

    However, hours after he was released from Adiala Jail, Islamabad Police arrested Chaudhry Parvez Elahi from Canal Road in Lahore, leaving with him for the federal capital. Earlier that day, the Lahore High Court (LHC) ordered the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to release Parvez Elahi, along with a restraining order against his possible arrest by any agency or preventive detention, after the accountability watchdog’s decision to arrest the former chief minister of Punjab was challenged in court through a petition.

    The visuals of his arrest went viral on social media.

    According to the capital police, Elahi was taken into custody on orders of the district magistrate under Section 3 of the MPO.

    Section 3 of MPO empowers the government to arrest and detain suspected persons. It states: “The government, if satisfied that with a view to preventing any person from acting in any manner prejudicial to public safety or the maintenance of public order, it is necessary to do, may, by an order in writing, direct the arrest and detention in such custody […] and [the] government, if satisfied that for the aforesaid reasons, it is necessary so to do, may extend from time to time the period of such detention, for a period not exceeding six months at a time.”

    After being moved to Attock jail, Parvez Elahi had approached the IHC against his detention, urging the court to declare it as “patently illegal, unlawful and without lawful authority”.

    In the petition, Elahi had requested the IHC to set aside the detention order and issue directives for his release. Interior secretary, district magistrate, the Islamabad police chief and the Adiala Jail’s superintendent were made respondents in the case.

    On Tuesday, Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri took up Elahi’s plea. The court suspended the PTI leader’s detention order and also ordered his release. The court also issued a notice to the duty magistrate who ordered Elahi’s detention.

    Further, the court also summoned Elahi at the next hearing and ordered him to not issue any kind of statement until the next hearing. The hearing was subsequently adjourned till Tuesday (September 12).

  • DC Peshawar issues detention orders of 11 PTM activists

    DC Peshawar issues detention orders of 11 PTM activists

    The district administration of Peshawar has issued orders to detain 11 activists of the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) under Section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO), on allegations of provoking the public against the government’s policies and the armed forces of the country.

    According to the detention order, SSP operations wrote a letter to the deputy commissioner stating that the Gulberg police station SHO provided a list of the PTM activists who provoked the public against the Pakistan Army and other institutions of Pakistan.

    The latter, issued by the SSP operations, informed the district administration that the individuals on the list pose a risk to the stability and peace of the country. They violated the writ of the government and the law and order situation in the area. 

    “The activities of the said individuals are against the law, and there is apprehension that they may continue their activities in the future,” the detention orders issued by the deputy commissioner said, adding that the administration considered the activities prejudicial to public safety and might create a law and order situation in the district.

  • Man kills wife for not cooking rice with curry

    Man kills wife for not cooking rice with curry

    According to the police, a man was apprehended in Odisha’s Sambalpur district on Monday on suspicion of murdering his wife because she didn’t cook rice with curry.

    The incident occurred in Nuadhi village in the Jamankira Police Station region on Sunday evening. The accused has been identified as Sanatan Dharua, a 40-year-old man, while his wife has been identified as Pushpa Dharua, a 35-year-old woman.

    Sanatan and Pushpa have a daughter and a son, with their daughter working as a domestic help in Kuchinda while their son was spending the night at a friend’s house on Sunday.

    Upon returning home, Sanatan discovered that Pushpa had prepared only curry and not rice, sparking an argument that resulted in him assaulting and killing his wife, as per a police officer.

    The matter came to light when Pushpa’s son returned home to find his mother dead. He contacted the authorities, who took the body and detained the husband.

    Jamankira Police Station Inspector-in-charge Premjit Das stated that an autopsy was conducted on Monday and the accused husband was held in custody.

  • Russia detains Wall Street Journal reporter on suspicion of spying for Washington

    Russia detains Wall Street Journal reporter on suspicion of spying for Washington

    On Thursday, the Federal Security Service (FSB) of Russia announced that it had detained Evan Gershkovich, a US national who works as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, on suspicion of espionage on behalf of the United States.

    The FSB has initiated a criminal investigation against Gershkovich, alleging that he gathered information classified as state secrets about a military factory. The FSB did not disclose the name or location of the factory but stated that Gershkovich was apprehended in Yekaterinburg, a city in the Urals, while attempting to obtain secret information. No evidence was provided to support the charges.

    The FSB asserted in a statement that Gershkovich was acting on behalf of the American side and had been collecting sensitive information on one of Russia’s military-industrial complexes. The detention of Gershkovich marks the most serious public move against a foreign journalist since Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine.

    Russia has implemented tighter censorship laws since its military operation in Ukraine began in February 2022. The Wall Street Journal and the US Embassy in Moscow did not respond immediately to requests for comment from Reuters. A US diplomatic source stated that the embassy had not been notified of the incident and was seeking information from Russian authorities about the case.

    Foreign journalists covering Russia expressed their support for Gershkovich online, contending that he was a professional journalist and not a spy. Andrei Soldatov, an author and an expert in Russia’s security agencies, who is currently outside the country, stated on social media that Gershkovich was an excellent and courageous journalist and not a spy. He further noted that the detention of Gershkovich represented a frontal attack on all foreign correspondents still working in Russia and that the FSB was off the leash.

    According to Russia’s Kommersant newspaper, Gershkovich will be transported to Moscow and detained in the Lefortovo prison, an FSB pre-trial detention facility. Gershkovich, who has covered Russia since 2017, previously worked at The Moscow Times and France’s Agence-France Presse news agency.

    In recent months, he had primarily reported on Russian politics and the Ukraine conflict. On Thursday, his mobile phone was unreachable, and according to the Telegram messenger service, he was last online on Wednesday at 1:28 pm Moscow time.

  • Australian judge offers Djokovic ray of hope in deportation fight

    Australian judge offers Djokovic ray of hope in deportation fight

    An Australian judge demanded to know what more Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic could have done to meet the country’s strict pandemic entry requirements, offerring a ray of hope to the detained tennis ace as he fights deportation.

    The 34-year-old world number one arrived in Melbourne last week ahead of Australian Open, hoping to win a record-breaking 21st Grand Slam title.

    But guards at the Melbourbne’s Tullamarine Airport decided the unvaccinated star had failed to present a solid medical reason for not being vaccinated.

    Djokovic’s visa was revoked and he was moved to an immigration detention facility pending deportation.

    In an emergency online court hearing Monday, Federal Judge Anthony Kelly listened to extended legal wrangling about the process, before jumping to the 34-year-old’s defence.

    Declaring himself “somewhat agitated”, Kelly said Djokovic had provided evidence from “a professor and an eminently qualified physician” about a medical exemption.

    “What more could this man have done?” the judge demanded.

    The proceedings were being watched live and anti-vaccine activists shared a link to the livestream, defying a court order by broadcasting the proceedings live on YouTube.

    Eventually, the judge pressed ahead without a public livestream, and Djokovic’s team of top lawyers made his case.

    The Australian Open gets under way in just seven days, and the nine-time defending champion’s participation now entirely depends on whether Judge Kelly believes the government acted improperly in revoking his visa.

    Most foreigners are still banned from travel to Australia, and those granted entry must be fully vaccinated or have an exemption like “acute” illness.

    Meanwhile, much of Australia is tightening restrictions to battle an Omicron-fuelled wave of infections.

    As per reports, the country is now approaching 100,000 cases a day, having been virus-free for much of the pandemic.