Shireen Issawi protests against the conditions of her imprisonment

Occupied Palestine – An attorney from the Ministry of Prisoners Affairs has stated that she has met with the imprisoned lawyer Shireen Issawi, during her visit to the Hasharon prison.

She told her that she has been subjected to daily interrogations in the Moscovia prison for 22 days, in a separate and isolated cell. She also said that the interrogation sessions were very long, starting in the mornings at 10 am and lasting until 2 am in the middle of the night.

These have resulted in severe exhaustion, and she said that she is suffering from severe pains in her back from the interrogations and from the tiresome transportation from the prison to the court, which takes more than 8 hours. She gets transported in a closed bus, being made to sit on a metal chair, while her hands and feet are shackled.

On top of this, there are long waiting times in the court room, which is in a terrible condition and has no access to a toilet. She also added that the Israeli prison authorities do not take into consideration that she is female. She is left all the time without food and water.

When she complained about these miserable conditions to the officer responsible for the bus, he told her: “You are criminals, and these are the conditions that you deserve.”

Issawi also said that she filed a complaint with the prison administration about the treatment she received from the forces of the Nachshon Unit, and about the miserable conditions in the bus, and that she requested that she would be transported directly to the court and back, without long waiting times. She made clear that if things remained this way, she would consider refusing to go to the court.

She added: “My detention as a lawyer, with my colleagues, is an arbitrary detention that detains justice itself, and a violation of the law. The Israeli government has treated me, a lawyer, in a degrading manner.”

Source: Al Quds newspaper, translated from Arabic by Tariq Shadid.