PA prisoner taken to hospital as health deteriorates

A security prisoner held by the Palestinian Authority was transferred to hospital on Sunday following the deterioration of his health due to alleged mistreatment, lawyer Mustafa Shatat has revealed. “Musab Shtayyeh was tortured by the PA security services which detain him in Jericho Prison,” said Shatat.

Shtayyeh is suffering from goitre and chronic hypertension, his family said, and takes medicine regularly. Last week, a PA court decided to release him, but he has been kept in prison on the order of the governor of Nablus, having been detained in the city three weeks ago.

Shtayyeh’s detention triggered wide-scale protests against the PA security services and their cooperation with the Israeli occupation. He has been arrested on three previous occasions and spent four years in an Israeli prison. Since June last year, he has been on the wanted list; efforts to arrest him have included several raids on his family home.

The PA security services set up an ambush for him in Nablus and captured him. They insist that his detention is not based on political grounds.