URGENT ACTION
social justice activist detention extended   
The Palestinian authorities renewed, for the second time, the detention of Suha Jbara. She was tortured by Palestinian security forces, and has been on hunger strike since 22 November to protest her arbitrary detention. Her next court hearing is scheduled for 20 December 2018.
On 6 December, the Jericho Magistrate Court in the occupied West Bank approved the renewal of Suha Jbara’s detention for further 15 days upon the request of the prosecution. Suha Jbara was arrested by Palestinian security forces from her home in Turmusaya near Ramallah in the West Bank on 3 November, and taken to Jericho Detention and Interrogation Centre used by the Joint Security Committee. 
Amnesty International met with Suha Jbara in prison on 4 December and gained first-hand testimony detailing her brutal treatment at the hands of her interrogators. According to Suha Jbara, she was interrogated for three consecutive days during which she alleges she was tortured by several male interrogators. She told Amnesty International that she was severely beaten on her chest and back, shaken and slammed against the wall, and threatened with sexual violence. “He insulted me all the time, used very dirty and violent sexual language, threatened to bring a doctor to look into my virginity saying that I was a whore, and threatened to hurt my family and to take my kids away from me,” Suha Jbara told Amnesty. 
The authorities rejected her lawyer’s request to have a forensic doctor examine her and assess her claims of torture during interrogation Suha Jbara has been taken to the Jericho hospital at least three times since she started the hunger strike and each time returned to prison. Her lawyers are denied access to the casefile which is held by the Attorney General. 
Please write immediately in Arabic or English or your own language, calling on the authorities to:
•	Ensure that, Suha Jbara is not punished in any way for her hunger strike, is treated humanely at all times, and given adequate medical care, including treatment in civilian hospitals with specialised facilities and granted access to independent doctors of her choice;
•	Order a prompt, impartial, independent and effective investigation into Suha Jbara’s allegations of torture and other ill-treatment in Jericho Detention and Interrogation Centre, and ensure that any officials identified as responsible are immediately suspended and subjected to disciplinary and criminal proceedings;
•	Ensure that, while she is detained, her due process rights are upheld and that legal proceedings against her conform to international fair trial standards, including allowing her lawyers access to the legal case against her.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 18 JANUARY 2019 TO:

Minister of Justice
Ali Abu Diak	
Ministry of Justice
Ramallah, State of Palestine
Facebook: Ali Abu Diak
Fax: +970 (2) 2973265
Email: mabusondos@moj.pna.ps
Salutation: Dear Minister

Attorney General	
Ahmad Barak	
Office of the Public Prosecutor	
Ramallah, State of Palestine	
Facebook: Dr. Ahmad Barak
Fax: +970 (2) 2983071
Email: ag.office@pgp.ps 
Salutation: Dear Attorney General

And copies to:
Prime Minister	
Rami Hamdallah	
Ramallah, State of Palestine	
Twitter handle: @RamiHamdalla 	
Fax: +970 (2) 2968989
Email: salaheddin@pmo.pna.ps 
Salutation: Dear Prime Minister 
Also send copies to diplomatic representatives accredited to your country. Palestinian Mission in the UK 5 Galena Road, Hammersmith, London W6 0LT United Kingdom Phone: +44(0)208 563 0008 Fax: +44(0)208 563 0058 Email: info@palmissionuk.org
Please check with your section office if sending appeals after the above date. This is the first update of UA 203/18. Further information: https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde15/9478/2018/en/    
URGENT ACTION
Social justice activist detention extended   
ADditional Information
Suha Jbara, 31, who is primary carer for three children, is a Palestinian, US, and Panamanian citizen. She is a social justice activist and is involved with Islamic charities. She also works to support the families of Palestinian prisoners in Israel. On 3 November 2018, she was arrested from her home in Turmusaya. Her family said that five Palestinian security forces vehicles arrived at her family home and demanded to enter, threatening to break the door. She was taken to the General Intelligence detention centre in Ramallah where she experienced a mental and physical crisis and collapsed. She was admitted briefly to the Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah and then taken to the Jericho Interrogation and Detention Center. Her whereabouts were unknown to her family until 7 November when she was brought to court. 
On 7 November, Suha Jbara was presented to the Jericho Magistrate Court where her detention was extended for 15 days. She was then transferred to Jericho Corrections and Rehabilitation Center (Jericho Prison). Prosecutors from the Attorney General’s office questioned Suha Jbara and recorded her testimony on 5 November at the Jericho Detention and Interrogation Centre. She told Amnesty International that the prosecutors took her testimony in the presence of armed security officials in the room. She was not allowed to read her testimony before having to sign it.
Suha Jbara told Amnesty International that she began a hunger strike on 22 November to protest her torture during interrogation and the unfair treatment by the prosecution and judiciary. Since then, she had suffered relentless harassment from officials to end the hunger strike. She described her current health condition by saying: “I am starting to get very tired. I feel pain in the lower back and lower back sides that sometimes travels to my legs.’’ She said that, soon after she began the hunger strike, she was taken to hospital for a short time before being transferred back to the Jericho Prison, where she was placed in solitary confinement as punishment for her hunger strike. She told Amnesty that she was being denied family visits or phone calls as punishment for her hunger strike, which is a legitimate form of protest. ‘’The most difficult thing of the hunger strike is the pressure that is put on me by everyone around me to stop what I am doing,” Suha Jbara told Amnesty. 
Amnesty International has documented that Palestinian forces in the West Bank and Gaza continue to arrest arbitrarily peaceful demonstrators and critics of both authorities. Among those arrested and detained are journalists, university students, critics and human rights activists. Amnesty is concerned that many of these arrests are arbitrary and that judicial proceedings do not meet fair trial standards. Amnesty is also gravely concerned about Palestinian security forces systematic use of torture and other ill-treatment against detainees with impunity, despite the State of Palestine’s ratification of the Conventions Against Torture and the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture. The Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR), Palestine’s national human rights institution, receives hundreds of complaints of torture and other ill-treatment against Palestinian security forces each year; this year, more than 200 complaints were received by October.  

Further Information on UA: 203/18 Index: MDE 21/9532/2018 Issue Date: 7 December 2018