Two Palestinian institutions confirmed that prominent prisoner Marwan Barghouti and a number of his comrades isolated in the cells of the “Megiddo” detention center were brutally assaulted in prison, causing him severe injuries.
The Commission for Ex-Prisoners’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club said that the attack on a member of the Central Committee of the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah) and his companions took place on September 9, and caused him several injuries to his body.
According to the information that his lawyer was able to collect after numerous attempts to visit him over the past period, “the beatings focused on the head, ears, ribs, and extremities, which led to bleeding in the right ear, an injury to his right arm, and severe pain throughout his entire body, especially Ribs, chest and back,” according to a statement issued today.
The two institutions added that Barghouti’s injury later worsened, causing ulcers and severe ear infections, as a result of the prison administration’s intention to leave him without treatment.
She continued that the brutal repression operations that included all the prisoners since the beginning of the war of genocide, including the symbols and leaders of the prisoner movement, have only one explanation, which is that the occupation took a clear decision to attempt to assassinate them, noting that Barghouti was subjected to two previous attacks.
This came while the Central Committee of the Fatah movement said yesterday, Sunday, that Barghouti was being subjected to an assassination attempt by a decision of the Israeli government.
The Fatah Central Committee added, in a statement, that what Commander Marwan Barghouti (detained in Megiddo prison in northern Israel) was subjected to and is being subjected to is nothing but an attempt to liquidate him by a decision of an extremist occupation government.
It condemned in the strongest terms the repeated brutal attacks against prisoners, led by Barghouti, who was once again subjected to a sinful attack at a time when the rest of his fellow prisoners were being exposed to the most severe and horrific attacks and atrocities, including isolation, beatings, and comprehensive deprivation of treatment, food, and the most basic rights stipulated in international conventions.
The Central Committee warned that harming the life of Barghouti, the rest of the prisoner leaders, and the entire prisoner movement would move the confrontation with the occupation to an escalating stage of tension and explosion.
The committee called on António Guterres, the International Court of Justice, and relevant human rights institutions to “urgently intervene to save the life of Barghouti, and all our captive sons and daughters.”
The International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations called for pressure to visit Barghouti and his fellow prisoners.
For his part, the head of the Palestinian National Council, Rawhi Fattouh, in a statement, held the Israeli occupation responsible for the life of Commander Marwan Barghouti, calling for urgent international intervention to protect the prisoners.
Fattouh added that Barghouti has been subjected for 3 months to the most horrific practices of isolation and brutal torture in Megiddo prison.
Al-Barghouti has been detained since 2002, and has been sentenced to 5 life imprisonments and 40 years.
Recently, there has been an increase in testimonies proving that Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons were subjected to various types of torture, abuse, and humiliation, especially in the notorious Sde Teman detention center and other detention centers.