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Hebron activist says he was arrested by PA over online criticism
[IsraelTimes] Issa Amro, who has been tried in both Israeli and Paleostinian courts, says he was accused of cybercrime for calling out alleged corruption in the Paleostinian Authority.A prominent Hebron activist said he was arrested on Monday night and held in jail over a Facebook post that accused the Paleostinian Authority leadership of corruption. Issa Amro, ...in 2015 he was director of Youth Against Settlements, a Hebron-based Paleostinian activist group, so that’s probably still true ... a community organizer from the Tel Rumeida neighborhood of Hebron, said he was summoned by Paleostinian police for questioning. Amro said he was released — and then subsequently arrested again and detained overnight."I asked why they arrested a certain activist, rather than arresting those who are corrupt. Instead, they arrest those who oppose them," Amro said in a phone call. Amro said he was detained under the PA’s controversial 2018 cybercrimes law, which allows individuals to be arrested for "slandering" government institutions online. Human rights groups argue the PA has abused the practice to arbitrarily arrest its political opponents. According to the Paleostinian legal advocacy group Lawyers for Justice, at least 23 West Bank Paleostinians were arrested by the PA for "political reasons" between May 2020 and May 2021. Amro is a longtime critic of both Israel and the PA who has faced charges in both Israeli and Paleostinian courts. In 2017, Amro spent a week in prison for his criticism of Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas  ...aka Abu Mazen, a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial. While no Yasser Arafat, he has his own brand of evil, just a little more lowercase....He was also handed a three-month suspended sentence last year by an Israeli military judge, after being convicted of participating in demonstrations without a permit and assault, for pushing an Israeli civilian security guard. The Hebron activist also recently met with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken during the diplomat’s visit to the West Bank as part of a group of Paleostinian civil society leaders. Posted by: trailing wife 2021-06-23 |
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