Israel to reconsider Sheikh Salah’s detention on May 30

By Abdel Raouf Arnaout

JERUSALEM

The Israeli High Court on Monday extended the detention of Palestinian resistance icon Raed Salah until May 30, according to his lawyer.

“The High Court convened today [Monday] to consider the Israeli Attorney-General’s request to extend the detention of Sheikh Salah for an additional three months,” Khaled Zabarqa, Salah’s lawyer, told Anadolu Agency.

“We submitted a request to the court last week to reconsider Sheikh Raed’s detention after it became clear that his testimony -- on which his indictment and witness testimony had relied -- was mistranslated,” Zabarqa said.

According to the lawyer, the High Court judge said Monday that Salah would remain in custody until the court reconsidered his detention on May 30.

Last summer, Israeli police arrested Salah in Umm al-Fahm -- a Palestinian town in northern Israel -- before convicting him of “inciting violence” and throwing him into solitary confinement.

In February, a court in the southern city of Beersheba slapped Salah, who leads the northern branch of the Islamic movement in Israel, with a further six months in isolation.