JEDDAH, 21 May 2008 — Lawyers representing a Saudi imprisoned in Israel for inadvertently crossing the Israeli border from Egypt have called for the implementation of a court verdict demanding he be set free.
“The law should be implemented and the verdict should prevail,” said Buthaina Duqmaq, a lawyer from the Ramallah-based Mandela Institute for Human Rights and Political Prisoners that is representing Abdulrahman Al-Atwi, 38.
“There is no reason to further detain him,” she added.
Duqmaq was speaking in response to the Israeli Interior Ministry’s comments at Tel Aviv’s Central Court on Monday that Al-Atwi’s release had been delayed as he failed to cooperate with UN representatives.
Lawyers from the Mandela Institute for Human Rights and Political Prisoners had recently asked the Tel Aviv Central Court how long he would remain imprisoned.
Al-Atwi has been languishing in an Israeli prison since 2005 after crossing into the Jewish state from Egypt while out trekking. Subsequently, an Israeli court sentenced him to three months in jail for illegally crossing into Israeli territory. Since there are no diplomatic ties between the Kingdom and Israel, Al-Atwi should have ideally been released to a third country, which could facilitate his return to Saudi Arabia.
However, UN efforts to hand Al-Atwi over to Saudi authorities via a third country has been unsuccessful, as five countries — Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, Finland and Sweden — declined to accept him.
A court verdict issued last October demanded that Al-Atwi be set free no later than April 30, six months from the initial verdict, unless the Israeli government had good reason to continue detaining him.
Duqmaq said Ramleh Prison, where Al-Atwi is detained, is packed with foreigners — mainly people from Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia — charged with illegally crossing into Israeli territory.
She added that Al-Atwi might be released inside Israel and be able to leave the country by land into a neighboring country and then onto Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi national has staged three hunger strikes — ranging from 70 to 90 days — since his imprisonment, said Duqmaq, who has visited him several times. She added that she would be visiting Al-Atwi today after a visit scheduled for Monday was postponed.
Before his arrest, Al-Atwi was in Egypt where he was living in a flat in Al-Muhandiseen district. Police later found his personal belongings in the flat as well as his telephone number. When last contacted by phone, he was between Sinai and Ismailiya. “After that we never had any contact with him,” said Lt. Col. Sameer Al-Babli, an Egyptian police officer.
His family was quoted in the local media as saying that he lost his way on a hiking trip in Sinai. Al-Atwi, who is divorced with a daughter, hails from the northwestern region of Tabuk. He worked in the Civil Defense before moving to work for a company in Makkah.
