Marwan Barghouti was beaten by prison guards three times in recent weeks, his lawyer alleges

An attorney for prominent Palestinian security prisoner Marwan Barghouti says he discovered during a recent visit with his client that he was severely beaten three separate times by Israeli guards in recent weeks.

“On April 8 in Ganot Prison, he was severely beaten and left bleeding for more than two hours. He requested medical care and was denied treatment,” Ben Marmarelli says in a statement.

“On March 25, he was assaulted during his transfer from Megiddo to Ganot. On March 24, in Megiddo Prison, guards entered his cell with a dog, forced him to the ground, and the dog repeatedly attacked him,” he says.

“These are not isolated incidents. They form a clear pattern of escalating abuse: violence, medical neglect, and treatment that places him at immediate risk,” Marmarelli writes.

“He had a great deal to say. Above all, he wanted to know more about his family and the Palestinian people,” says the lawyer.

Marmarelli’s report sparks widespread condemnations from Palestinian Authority officials.

PA President Mahmoud Abbas “expressed his strong condemnation of the repression, abuse, and brutal assaults endured by Palestinian detainees in Israeli occupation prisons, which violate their human dignity,” his office says in a statement.

Barghouti, seen by many Palestinians as a potential successor to Abbas, has been incarcerated since 2002. He is serving five cumulative life terms plus 40 years in prison for helping plan terror attacks during the Second Intifada that killed five civilians.