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Free Abu Sakha, trainer and performer of the Palestinian Circus School [17.01.2016]

(ai) Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha (23), trainer and performer of the Palestinian Circus School, has been detained on his way from his parents home, in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, to his work at the Palestinian Circus School in Birzeit, next to Ramallah, by the Israeli military, without charge or any explanation, since 15 December. Israeli soldiers detained him at the Zaatara checkpoint, close to the West Bank city of Nablus. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has told his parents that he is now in Megiddo prison, in northern Israel, though his family have not been allowed to visit him.

The Israeli military handed him a six-month administrative detention order in late December, allowing them to detain him without charge indefinitely. The Al Jazeera news website quoted an Israeli military spokesperson that day as saying that Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha was being held because he posed a "danger to the security of the region" and that the details of his case were "confidential".

The Israeli authorities have increased their use of administrative detention dramatically since October 2015: over 580 Palestinians were in administrative detention by the end of the year.

Mohammad Faisal Abu Sakha began studying at the Palestinian Circus School in 2007 and became one of its performers in 2011, also training children in circus acts. He specializes in teaching children with learning difficulties, who make up 30 of the more than 300 students at the school.  (ts)

Ergänzende Links:
#FREEABUSAKHA, trainer and performer of the Palestinian Circus School (pcs)
Petition: Free circus trainer and artist Mohammed Faisal Abu Sakha (avaaz)
Free Abu Sakha (facebook)