Lawyers for activists held by Israel denounce “mistreatment” and “psychological abuse”

The Center for the Rights of the Arab Minority in Israel, Adalah – which is in charge of legal advice for the activists of the Sumud Global Flotilla – denounced this Monday the “mistreatment” and “psychological abuse” to which Saif Abukeshek and Thiago Ávila, held by Israel, are being subjected.

The two Adalah lawyers who are handling the case, Hadil Abu Salí and Lubna Tuma, have reported that Abukeshek, a Spanish citizen, and Ávila, a Brazilian, have already entered their sixth day of hunger strike, initiated in protest of “their illegal kidnapping” in international waters when they participated last week in a humanitarian mission to break the Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip.

In total solitary confinement since then, Ávila has reported “having been subjected to repeated interrogations lasting up to eight hours”, in which he has been “explicitly threatened” with “murder” and years in prison.

“Thiago reported that he is kept at extremely low temperatures. They are kept blindfolded at all times when they are transferred out of their cells, even during medical examinations,” the lawyers have highlighted.

Adalah has also denounced that their cells “are kept under constant high-intensity lighting 24 hours a day, a known practice of the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) designed specifically to cause sleep deprivation and sensory disorientation.”

The Government of Spain has demanded that Israel “immediately release” Abukeshek, considering that he is “illegally detained.” He and Ávila will remain in the custody of Israeli security forces until Tuesday, as determined on Sunday by a court in the Israeli city of Ashkelon.

Adalah’s lawyers are waiting to know if Israel will present a request this Tuesday to extend the detention of both activists, whose illegal arrest, they have stressed, has the sole purpose of criminalizing aid to the Palestinians.