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UN Official Urges Israel to Either Charge or Release Akhras

Israeli left-wing activists lift a placard bearing the picture of Palestinian administrative detainee Maher al-Akhras during a demonstration calling for his release, in the central city of Rehovot, on October 11, 2020. (Ahmad GHARABLI / AFP)
Israeli left-wing activists lift a placard bearing the picture of Palestinian administrative detainee Maher al-Akhras during a demonstration calling for his release, in the central city of Rehovot, on October 11, 2020. (Ahmad GHARABLI / AFP)
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UN Official Urges Israel to Either Charge or Release Akhras

Israeli left-wing activists lift a placard bearing the picture of Palestinian administrative detainee Maher al-Akhras during a demonstration calling for his release, in the central city of Rehovot, on October 11, 2020. (Ahmad GHARABLI / AFP)
Israeli left-wing activists lift a placard bearing the picture of Palestinian administrative detainee Maher al-Akhras during a demonstration calling for his release, in the central city of Rehovot, on October 11, 2020. (Ahmad GHARABLI / AFP)

The United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Nickolay Mladenov, has expressed concern about the condition of Maher al-Akhras, a Palestinian held in an Israeli jail and on hunger strike for 81 days.

Mladenov’s office told WAFA news agency that the Special Coordinator has called on Israel to either charge Akhras, specify a time for his imprisonment, or immediately set him and all administrative detainees free.

Akhras, 49, was arrested on July 27 and was placed in administrative detention, a policy that Israel uses to hold suspects without charge. He was then moved to Hawara Camp where he began a hunger strike.

Israel’s Supreme Court refused to immediately release Akhras, postponing its decision to October 26. This prompted him to continue with his hunger strike.

Health Minister Mai al-Kaileh urged international and humanitarian organizations to intervene. She said that there is a Palestinian father dying from hunger while chained to his bed in an Israeli hospital.

Spokesman for the Commission of the Detainees and Ex-Detainee Affairs Hassan Abed Rabbo confirmed that the prisoners who are affiliated with the Fatah movement and the Popular Front movement began the hunger strike in solidarity with Wael Al-Jaghoub, Hatem Al-Qawasmi and Omar Kharwat who are held in solitary confinement by the Israeli prison service.

Abed Rabbo added that more prisoners plan to join the strike.

For his part, Akhras addressed those who showed solidarity with his cause, expressing determination to remain on hunger strike. He will not have food anywhere but his house, he stressed, adding that the one condition to suspend his hunger strike is “freedom.”

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Libyan Court Jails 12 Officials over Deadly Floods

Abdul Salam Ibrahim Al-Qadi, 43 years old, walks on the rubble in front of his house, searching for his missing father and brother after the deadly floods in Derna, Libya, September 28, 2023. REUTERS/Esam Omran Al-Fetori/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Abdul Salam Ibrahim Al-Qadi, 43 years old, walks on the rubble in front of his house, searching for his missing father and brother after the deadly floods in Derna, Libya, September 28, 2023. REUTERS/Esam Omran Al-Fetori/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
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Libyan Court Jails 12 Officials over Deadly Floods

Abdul Salam Ibrahim Al-Qadi, 43 years old, walks on the rubble in front of his house, searching for his missing father and brother after the deadly floods in Derna, Libya, September 28, 2023. REUTERS/Esam Omran Al-Fetori/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Abdul Salam Ibrahim Al-Qadi, 43 years old, walks on the rubble in front of his house, searching for his missing father and brother after the deadly floods in Derna, Libya, September 28, 2023. REUTERS/Esam Omran Al-Fetori/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights

A Libyan court has jailed 12 officials in connection with the collapse of a series of dams in Derna last year that killed thousands of the city's residents, the Attorney General said on Sunday.

The officials, who were responsible for managing the country's dams, were sentenced to between 9 and 27 years in prison by the Court of Appeal in Derna. Four officials were acquitted, according to Reuters.

Derna, a coastal city with a population of 125,000, was devastated last September by massive floods caused by Storm Daniel.

Thousands were killed and thousands more were missing as a result of the floods that burst dams, swept away buildings and destroyed entire neighbourhoods.

The Attorney General in Tripoli said three of the defendants were ordered to "return money obtained from illicit gains", according to a statement, which did not give the names or positions of those on trial.

"The convicted officials have been charged with negligence, premeditated murder and waste of public money," a judicial source in Derna told Reuters by phone, adding that they had the right to appeal against the verdicts.

A report in January by the World Bank, United Nations and European Union said deadly flash flooding in Derna constituted a climate and environmental catastrophe that required $1.8 billion to fund reconstruction and recovery.

The report said the dams' collapse was partly due to their design, based on outdated hydrological information, and partly a result of poor maintenance and governance problems during more than a decade of conflict in Libya.