A Palestinian man, Ahmad al-Awartani, 25, was arrested by Palestine Authority police for a Facebook post in which he criticized the PA. The arrest took place under the so-called Cyber Crimes Law.
Read: Al-Haq's Comments on the Law by Decree on Cyber-crimes of 2017 https://t.co/BdffAEEcWu #DigitalRights #PDAF2018 #Palestine #HumanRights #StateofPalestine https://t.co/meiKNrXJmC
— Al-Haq الحق (@alhaq_org) January 17, 2018
During Tuesday’s hearing, the defender refused to answer the judge’s questions. He has reportedly launched a hunger strike to protest his arrest.
#Palestine court in #Jericho #WestBank has extended the detention of 25-year-old Ahmad al-Awartani, who was arrested last weekend for a #Facebook post criticising a #Abbas govt campaign. I now view the PA as authoritarian regime as it is more than once I have to collect such info
— Ruud Wedding (@RuudWedding) April 27, 2018
A PA court extended his detention for 15 more days and al-Awartani was transferred to Jericho, Al Jazeera reported. His family worries that he may face torture.
Addameer, a Ramallah-based prisoner rights group, described al-Awartani’s arrest as “outrageous”.
(Al Jazeera, PC, Social Media)
