Tuesday, November 17, 2015, 16:15 According to a ruling by Judge Avraham Tal of the Central District Court on Tuesday, November 17, administrative detainees Meir Ettinger and Eviatar Slonim will remain in remand for three more months. Ettinger and Slonim were detained in August 2015.
On September 20, in addition to authorizing the six-month administrative detention order, Judge Avraham Tal ruled that in two month’s time a follow-up deliberation will take place on the order. During the deliberation representatives of the GSS and the Attorney General’s office claimed that the administrative detainees should remain in remand because of the current wave of terror attacks throughout Israel, which in their opinion creates a volatile atmosphere.
Honenu Attorney Yuval Zemer, who is representing Meir Ettinger, stated that the decision indicates that the detention is based on the ideas held by the detainee. Judge Tal ruled in his decision that from the material presented to him it appears that after three months of remand Ettinger holds the same “extreme ideology”.
Zemer stated that “This is another decision in a line of decisions which allow the detention of citizens merely for their opinions.” And added that, “This is significantly worse because during the investigation by the GSS representative it was clarified beyond any doubt that Mr. Ettinger has never participated in any violent activity and no link can be made between him and others who have, supposedly, acted under his influence. This decision should cause anyone for whom human rights are dear to his heart to lose sleep.”
Honenu Attorney Aharon Roza, who is representing Eviatar Slonim said that, “The proceedings of the court so far, prove the greatest concern about ordering an administrative detention, which is that there is no way for the detainee to cope with the “intelligence information” that is the basis for his detention, because almost all of it is not revealed to him. And thus, and I am sorry to say this, it is impossible not to call these proceedings fundamentally anti-democratic.”
For more information about the illegal transfer of Meir Ettinger and Eviatar Slonim to solitary confinement in the Eshel Prison see here.