JAILED Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti is at immediate risk in Israeli jails, where he has been attacked three times in as many weeks, including in one assault last month where prison guards set a dog on the 66-year-old, his lawyer has said.
Barghouti is respected across all Palestinian factions, has broad popular support across occupied Palestine, repeatedly engaged with Israeli officials before his detention and long backed a two-state solution.
On Wednesday, the 24th anniversary of his imprisonment, international celebrities including Cate Blanchett, Bryan Adams and Don Cheadle added their names to a high-profile demand for his release that is already backed by hundreds of cultural figures and former global leaders.
His lawyer, Ben Marmarelli, said in a statement after a prison visit where Barghouti provided details of the most recent attacks that the Palestinian leader faced a ‘clear pattern of escalating abuse, violence, medical neglect and treatment that places him at immediate risk’ in jail.
Marmarelli said that on 25th March prison guards entered Barghouti’s cell in Megiddo prison with a dog and forced him to the ground where ‘the dog repeatedly attacked him’.
The following day Barghouti was assaulted during a transfer to Ganot prison, and on 8th April guards at that jail beat him severely, left him bleeding for more than two hours and denied requests for medical treatment, he said.
‘Despite all of that, his mind was sharp, focused, and deeply engaged with everything happening outside those prison walls,’ Marmarelli said.
Barghouti’s trial for murder was criticised as flawed by legal experts, and Nelson Mandela reportedly described it as a legal attack on a legitimate political struggle.
Barghouti was convicted of ordering attacks that killed civilians during the second intifada and has remained in jail since, spending long stretches in solitary confinement.
‘In an atmosphere where Israel is emboldened in its abuse of prisoners, the only way to protect Marwan is to secure his immediate release,’ Marmarelli said.
