‘Hunger striker plotted terror from jail’

State prosecutors argue that Palestinian hunger-striking prisoner Mohammad Allaan had planned terrorist activities while he was held in an Israeli prison and that releasing him therefore would endanger the lives of Israeli civilians.

Meanwhile, Allaan’s attorney Jamil Khatib says he plans to reject a proposal submitted to the High Court on behalf of the state, according to which the prisoner will be released if he agrees to leave the country for four years.

“The proposal shows that administrative detention became a heavy and prolonged punishment without trial, which is based on extraneous considerations,” reads a statement issued by Khatib. “We will argue in court that even according to the logic of security authorities, the rationale behind the detention is to prevent the security threat posed by the detainee, and that therefore Mohammad Allaan must be released, because he cannot pose any threat in his current state. His detention has thus become a detention of revenge and retaliation which serves no proper purpose, all without filing an indictment against him.”

Allaan has been held by Israel without trial since November under an anti-terror measure called “administrative detention.” He is said by Israel to be affiliated with the Islamic Jihad terror group, and Israeli intelligence claims he played a role in the group’s activities. He has been hospitalized since Friday at the Barzilai Medical Center, where he remains unconscious but stable after being given fluids and salts intravenously. He was also breathing with the aid of an artificial respirator.