RAMALLAH: Human rights researcher Ayman Nasser is still being held in “interrogation detention" in an Israeli military prison. Adameer, the Palestinian prisoners' rights organization for which Nasser works, reported that his sentence was extended an additional 12 days before being reduced to seven after his lawyer protested. Nasser was arrested on October 15 and placed under a 25-day interrogation sentence. Last month, Human Rights Watch condemned Israel's “harassment" of Adameer employs. HRW director Sarah Leah Whitson added, “It's deeply ironic that Israel is arbitrarily detaining a researcher who has documented administrative detention, and violating the rights of the head of a human rights group." Adameer claims that he has been interrogated for 25 consecutive days, some of which include sessions spanning 20 hours or more, and that he has been placed in isolation in a small cell that measures 2 meters in height and 1.5 in width. Nasser said that prison authorities have denied him access to medicines he is prescribed to take every day for preexisting health conditions, including an inflamed colon and chronic back pain. Nasser also told his lawyer that he is being held solely because of his political opinions and his work in the Handala Center, a community center, in his home village of Saffa.
