Name: Imad Abdul Aziz Abdullah Batran

Date of Birth: 3 July 1974

Date of Arrest: 18 November 2011

Residence: Ithna/ Hebron

Legal Status: Administrative Detention

Prison: Ramleh Prison Hospital

Marital Status: Married with 4 children

 

 

Imad was arrested on 18 November 2011 and taken from his home in Ithna in the Hebron district. The Israeli Occupying Forces raided his home at exactly 2:00 AM with police dogs.

 

Imad’s wife refused to take her children outside because it was too cold.She also tried to keep the police dogs from entering her home. The soldiers rebuffed her and used the dogs to search the house.

 

Imad was transferred to the Kiryat Arba settlement near Hebron. Several hours later, he was transferred to Etzion 

interrogation center. He remained there for 10 days, then an administrative detention order for six months was issued against him. He was then transferred to Ofer.

 

Imad was transferred to a number of prisons during his detention with the aim of depriving him of his sense of stability. His wife has said that this has severely disrupted family visits and has made them irregular. She adds that these transfers are practiced as a punishment, retaliation for Imad’s protests regarding the IPS’s arbitrary practices against prisoners.

 

Imad was previously detained for a number of years, most of which were in administrative detention. The arrests began in 1994 where he was sentenced a year and a half. In 2003, he spent 3 months in administrative detention, and then another 6 months in 2005 and finally 19 months in 2008 before his current arrest.

 

Imad launched his open hunger strike on 7 May 2013. On that date, he received a renewal order for 6 months. This is the fourth time his administrative detention has been renewed by the military court. He previously decided that he would begin an open hunger strike, contingent on the renewal of his administrative detention order. In fact, he submitted a letter to the prison administration stating that he would launch a hunger strike if his administrative detention was to be renewed.

 

He was transferred that same day to isolation in Ofer as a punitive measure for starting an open hunger strike.He spent his time prior to his hospitalization in isolation.

 

The current administrative detention order was issued on 16 May 2013 for an additional 6 months. According to his wife the order was not yet confirmed.

 

Imad is married with 4 children.The oldest is Saraya (9 years old). Sally is 7 years old, Mohammad is 5 years old and, Layana, his youngest, is a year and a half old .She was born while her father was in prison.

 

The family receives visiting permits, but due to his many transfers and the continuous punitive measures leveled against him, his family cannot visit him regularly. His wife and children last attempted to visit him on 28 April 2013 in Ofer Prison. However, when they reached the prison the occupation forces refused to let them visit, claiming that Imad is denied visits for two months as punishment. After hours of waiting, resulting from Imad’s previous protest, they allowed the family to visit, but told them not to visit him again because he is punished for 2 months.

 

It should be mentioned that Imad was on hunger strike in September 2012 because the IPS rejected his request to visit his brother Tarek Batran who was arrested on 3 May 2005 and given a life sentence. Imad ended his hunger strike when he was allowed to live with his brother in Ramon prison for two months.

 

 

Here is how you can help Imad Batran:

 

*Write to the Israeli government, military and legal authorities and demand that Imad Batran be released immediately. 

 

•   Brigadier General Danny Efroni

Military Judge Advocate General

6 David Elazar Street

Harkiya, Tel Aviv

Israel

Fax: +972 3 608 0366; +972 3 569 4526

Email: arbel@mail.idf.il; avimn@idf.gov.il

•   Maj. Gen. Nitzan Alon

OC Central Command Nehemia Base, Central Command

Neveh Yaacov, Jerusalem

Fax: +972 2 530 5741

•   Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Ehud Barak

Ministry of Defense

37 Kaplan Street, Hakirya

Tel Aviv 61909, Israel

Fax: +972 3 691 6940 / 696 2757

•   Col. Eli Bar On

Legal Advisor of Judea and Samaria PO Box 5

Beth El 90631

Fax: +972 2 9977326

 

*Write to your own elected representatives urging them to pressure Israel to release Imad Batran and to put an end to such an unjust, arbitrary and cruel system of incarceration without trial.