Reuters journalist freed: Reporters Without Borders demands release of three others

Reporters Without Borders today expressed satisfaction at the release of Reuters sound-man Yusri el-Jamal from the Ofer detention centre near Ramallah on 9 October at the end of his second three-month period of administrative detention. "We are delighted at this release of an unjustly imprisoned journalist," said Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Robert Ménard in a letter to Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon, "but three other Palestinian journalists are still being held by the Israeli army without charges or trial in bad conditions that endanger their health. "The holding of these three - Hussam Abu Alan, Khalid Ali Mohammed Zwawi and Nizar Ramadan - is totally arbitrary since the Israeli authorities have provided not a shred of evidence or accusation against them. Administrative detention must not be used to silence and ill-treat journalists," he said. Jamal, 23, and Reuters cameraman Mazen Dana were arrested by Israeli soldiers on 30 April while they were filming wounded people in front of Hebron hospital. They were interrogated the next morning and Dana was released with apologies while Jamal was detained. The Israeli authorities told Reuters in a letter in May said Jamal was "directly connected with terrorist activities that had nothing to do with his work as a journalist." No details or evidence of this was supplied. He was put in administrative detention for three months on 22 May. A military court on 18 June rejected his application for release and on 11 July his detention was extended by another three months. Administrative detention is a special measure that allows a person to be held for renewable periods of six months without charges and therefore without trial. Neither the prisoners nor their lawyers have access to the case files, although they can appeal against the detention order. Between 800 and 900 Palestinians were estimated last month to be in administrative detention. Alan, an Agence France-Presse (AFP) photographer was arrested on 24 April at the Beit Anun checkpoint near Hebron on his way to cover the funeral of two Palestinians in Bani Naim. Soldiers blindfolded and handcuffed him. The Israeli army told AFP in writing on 3 May that he was suspected of "helping the Tanzim terrorist organisation," which is considered the armed wing of Al Fatah. The army provided no evidence of this. His lawyer, Mohammed Burghal, says Alan has not been interrogated in the whole time since he was arrested. He was put in administrative detention for three months on 22 May and this was renewed on 22 July by a military court. His lawyer has appealed the decision to the Israeli Supreme Court. Alan has been transferred from very bad conditions at Ofer detention centre to Ketzion prison, in the Negev desert. One of his lawyers was able to visit him briefly on 8 October. Zwawi, of the daily El Istiqlal, was arrested in the middle of the night at his home in Nablus on 15 April by Israeli soldiers who searched the house and seized items. He was taken to the Askalan detention centre. Ramadan, correspondent of the newspaper Al-Quds in Hebron, was arrested on 28 June while he and his family were visiting neighbours, and taken to Ofer. The same day, soldiers went to his office and seized and destroyed material there. On 6 July, the Israelis extended his detention by 18 days without explanation. More than 20 Palestinian journalists have been arrested since the Israeli occupation of Palestinian towns and cities began on 29 March and some of them have been ill-treated.