‘Lawyer, Red Cross banned from visiting Jordanian detained in Israel’

AMMAN — The lawyer of Jordanian prisoner in Israel Osaid Abu Khdeir and representatives from the International Committee of the Red Cross were banned on Wednesday morning from visiting him, according to his brother Anas.

“Israeli authorities do not allow visits to recently apprehended prisoners to prepare them for investigation,” Anas, who is also spokesperson of the media team supporting Jordanian prisoners in Israel, Fedaa, told The Jordan Times.

Israelis have not announced the reason of Osaid’s detention since his arrest on June 6, Anas added.

Osaid, 28, is married and has been living in the West Bank for two years. He is a father of a one-year-old girl and works in a clothes shop. 

His last visit to Jordan was during the Eid Al Adha holiday, Anas noted. Last year, the Muslim feast marking the end of the pilgrimage season, marked according to the Islamic lunar calendar, was in late September. 

“My brother was also transferred on Tuesday night from a detention centre in Etzion area to Ofer Prison near Ramallah,” Anas, who is a former prisoner in Israel, added.

“I filled in an application at the Foreign Ministry on June 8 with all the details of the incident for the ministry to follow up on Osaid’s case, but the ministry has not succeeded in obtaining new information,” he said.

He urged the ministry to contact Israeli authorities and ask for information on Osaid, in terms of charges against him and his medical status.

A Fedaa statement sent to The Jordan Times quoted Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Sabah Al Rafie as saying that “the ministry does not have enough information on Osaid’s case”.

With Osaid’s detention, the number of Jordanian prisoners in Israel increased to 25, according to Fedaa.

Six of the prisoners are facing life sentences: Abdullah Barghouthi (67 life sentences), Marae Abu Saeedeh (11 life sentences), Munir Marae (5 life sentences) and Hisham Kaabi (4 life sentences), in addition to Mohammad Rimawi and Hani Khamaiseh, each of whom is facing a life sentence.