Amnesty International has called on Israel to immediately release a human rights defender held under Tel Aviv’s administrative detention policy for another three months, Anadolu News Agency reports.

“The Israeli authorities must immediately release Salah Hammouri,” Heba Morayef, Amnesty’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, said in a statement.

Hammouri, a Franco-Palestinian lawyer, works for the Palestinian NGO Addameer. He has been held by Israel since March 7.

“Since March, Israeli authorities have arbitrarily detained Salah Hammouri without charge or trial in a clear attempt to muzzle his human rights work. It is outrageous that he must now serve another three months in detention,” he said. Morayef, calling Israel’s extension of his detention for another three months “scandalous”.

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“Instead of Salah Hammouri returning home to his family today, he faces another three months of incarceration,” she said. “His detention could even be extended and used against him to hasten his forced expulsion from Jerusalem.”

According to the New York-based rights group, Israel has been seeking to revoke Hammouri’s permanent residency status since September 2022, on the grounds of “breaking allegiance” to the State of Israel, putting him at risk of death. ‘expulsion.

Morayef also called on Israeli authorities to immediately release all those held in administrative detention “unless they are promptly charged with an internationally recognizable offense and tried in proceedings that meet international fair trial standards.” .