from the Public Relations Office
Ramallah--Today (Wednesday, June 26) a three-judge panel sitting in the Palestinian High Court of Justice in Ramallah required the Minister of Interior and the Attorney General to show cause within eight days for the detention of ten Birzeit University students who have been detained in the Ramallah prison since March.
The advocatesincluding Ahmad Sayyad, Akram Samara, Ali Ghuzlan, Elia Theodory, Khadir Shkeirat, and Marwan al-Khatibpresented the petition to the court at 11:00 am. Shortly thereafter the panel of judges agreed to hear the petition, and the court wa s called into session. Advocate Khadir Shkeirat presented the documents to the panel as well as brief supporting arguments. After consulting briefly, the judges decided to accept the petition and to ask the Attorney General and Minister of Interior to show cause for the detentions within eight days.
Today's case is the first appeal of its kind to the Palestinian High Court in the West Bank, and will set a legal precedent for the developing Palestinian judiciary. Birzeit University welcomes this development. The Human Rights Action Project stated t hat, "The future of the rule of law in Palestine will depend on test cases from these early days in the development of the Palestinian State. Today's review, prioritising the issue of habeus corpus, is one such case."
[ENDS]