
MK Limor Son Har-Melech (Otzma Yehudit) announced today (Wednesday) to Minister of Internal Security Omer Bar-Lev and the Prison Authority that she intends to use her parliamentary immunity to visit the administrative detainee Elhai Carmeli. She wants to witness the conditions of his incarceration.
"I intend to use my parliamentary immunity to meet with the administrative detainee, Elhai Carmeli. He has been detained for about a month without trial and without evidence by a scandalous order imposed by Benny Gantz. I will closely monitor the conditions of his incarceration," said the Knesset member.
She says, "According to reports that have reached me, Carmeli is being held in disgraceful conditions, in a small cell, with no phone calls - not even to his wife, and without being allowed to hold prayers with a minyan and other religious needs, not even in the synagogue in the prison."
"It cannot be that while murderers and the heads of terrorist organizations are having parties in prison, Jewish administrative detainees who have not been charged with any offense are sitting in disgraceful conditions. This order issued by Benny Gantz for political reasons at the end of his term, in blatant disregard of the court that ordered the release of Carmeli, must be revoked as soon as possible. Until then, I will be on guard to make sure that the administrative detainees are held under the conditions they deserve under the law," Son Har-Melech said.
Carmeli, a resident of Samaria, married and the father of a baby girl, was arrested about a month ago by the police. They requested an extension to his detention, but the Jerusalem District Court rejected the request. Minutes after the court's decision, outgoing Defense Minister Gantz signed an administrative arrest warrant for four months against Carmeli. Since then, according to his lawyers, he has been held in harsh conditions in the detention center in Jerusalem.