Tony’s Petition Reaches 800 Signatures 12.5.2009

The petition requesting the media investigate the delay in the decision from the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries decision regarding the denial or approval of a permit to Tony’s owner reached 800 signatures on Saturday December 5th 2009 at 6:51 PST.

If you have not signed the petition please do so at: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/425/petition-to-request-news-update-on-tony-the-tiger

Repost the link and ask your friends to sign too.

We have to keep Tony’s story out there so people know this poor tiger is still languishing in horrible conditions at the truck stop.

Tony’s Petition Reaches 800 Signatures 12.5.2009

The petition requesting the media investigate the delay in the decision from the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries decision regarding the denial or approval of a permit to Tony’s owner reached 800 signatures on Saturday December 5th 2009 at 6:51 PST.

If you have not signed the petition please do so at: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/425/petition-to-request-news-update-on-tony-the-tiger

Repost the link and ask your friends to sign too.

We have to keep Tony’s story out there so people know this poor tiger is still languishing in horrible conditions at the truck stop.

by Nation intern and freelance writer Andrea D’Cruz

An international campaign to secure the immediate and unconditional release of Mohammad Othman, a human rights activist from Occupied West Bank, who has been detained without charge by Israel since September 22, is moving into high-gear.

Othman, 33, is from Jayyous, a village robbed of most of its agricultural land–including that of Othman’s family–by Israel’s separation wall and the illegal Zufim settlement, built by Russian billionaire Lev Leviev. Jayyous, along with the villages of Bi’lin and Ni’lin, have been the hubs of non-violent and often exuberantly creative resistance against the separation wall. Archbishop Desmond Tutu praised the Bi’lin protests as the legacy of those led by Gandhi, Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King.

Othman himself has campaigned with the Stop the Wall Campaign as well as on behalf of the Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) movement, which aims to pressure Israel and companies, such as Leviev’s, that are involved in the occupation and other human rights abuses against Palestinians. He recently travelled to Norway where he met with senior Norwegian officials, spoke about Israeli human rights abuses and encouraged the country’s leaders to take further steps to hold Israel accountable. (Norway has already divested its funds from Elbit, an Israeli company which supplies drones and other military technology.)

On his return from this trip Othman was arrested by Israeli soldiers at the Allenby Bridge crossing, which links Jordan to the West Bank. Since his arrest, his period of detention has been extended twice at military hearings–at the last one on October 8 it was extended a further 12 days, based on “secret evidence” from the Shin Bet, the Israeli Security Agency. However, no charge has been made and, despite resquests from Othman’s attorney, Shin Bet has not disclosed its “secret evidence” nor the reasons for the detention.

Over the past 23 days Othman has been held in solitary confinement in a tiny cell with no access to natural light. Addameer, the prisoners’ support and human rights assosication, says it is possible that he will be released soon but fears he could face a renewable administrative detention order of one to six months, again without charge.

This is a deliberate tactic. Addameer reports that “Israel has regularly used administrative detention in the OPT [Occupied Palestinian Territories] to faciliate the detention of community activists and human rights defenders in cases where the prosecution lacks “suffiecient’–or, more likely, “any”–evidence against them” and, along with Stop the Wall, argues that “Mohammad’s arrest should be viewed in a wider context of persistent Israeli repression against human rights defenders and activists who, like Mohmmad have been successful in their lobbying efforts, at home and abroad…’

…Here are ways you can help free Othman:

Follow the Free Mohammad Othman blog and join the Facebook page for updates and action alerts.

Add your signature to this petition.

Sign and send a message to President Obama through the Jewish Voice for Peace online campaign.

Grassroots International has an online form which you can use to demand Othman’s release in a letter to your representatives at consular offices in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem/Ramallah and to the Israeli Embassy in Washington DC.

***

Update 24 (27 November)

The judge of the judicial review hearing has upheld the administrative detention order but has decided that the two months Mohammad had already been imprisoned for interrogation have to be taken into account. This means that the administrative detention order expires on December 22/23.

The military court has therefore upheld the administrative detention after the appeals court had accepted Addameer’s appeal on November 25 and ruled Mohammad’s release on the grounds that no measurable progress had been made during the two months he had been held in interrogation, no external evidence had been brought to the attention of the court and the military prosecution had been unable to formulate substantiated allegations or charges against him.

The administrative detention order has been issued after two months of interrogation in which Mohammad has been threatened and pressured into confessions. On November 19 he was told by one of the Israeli interrogators that his detention would not be extended again and that he would be placed under administrative detention if he failed to confess. The administrative detention order seems to be a punitive measure for Mohammad’s failure to give in to the pressure exerted upon him rather than a decision based on legal evidence…

…As the case currently stands, Mohammad has still one month of imprisonment to endure and might be released on December 22/23.

However, administrative detention orders are often renewed on expiry or shortly before expiry. There is a risk that a new administrative detention order might be issued at the end of his current sentence.

It is crucial that we continue to raise his case challenging the arbitrary nature of Mohammad’s arrest and the administrative detention order against him, upheld by the judicial review hearing. Full update