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(Washington, May 23) In a letter sent today to President Yasir Arafat, Human Rights Watch called on the head of the Palestinian Authority to release immediately Palestinian journalist Daoud Kuttab. A copy of the letter is attached.

May 23, 1997
President Yasir Arafat
Palestinian Authority
Gaza City, Gaza Strip
via facsimile: 972-7-822-365

Your Excellency:

We are writing to protest the continuing detention without charge of Daoud Kuttab, a Palestinian-American journalist and television producer. According to press accounts and persons who have spoken with Mr. Kuttab, he is apparently being held in connection with his televised broadcasts of open sessions of the Palestinian Legislative Council. We urge you to release him immediately.

This incident follows a disturbing pattern of harassment by the Palestinian Authority of journalists, human rights monitors, and other government critics, a number of whom have been detained solely for exercising their internationally guaranteed right to free expression. Mr. Kuttab was summoned by the authorities following his distribution, to local Palestinian television stations, of a tape of the session that day of the Palestine Legislative Council, which reportedly included critical discussion of the fiscal policies of the Authority. According to our information, Mr. Kuttab's company, Al-Quds Educational Television, has written authorization from the Ministry of Communications of the Palestinian Authority, as well as approval from the Palestinian Security Service, to broadcast the sessions of the Council.

At 11 pm on Tuesday, May 20, Mr. Kuttab was summoned without a warrant to the Ramallah police station. Colonel Firas, the chief of police, allowed Mr. Kuttab to telephone his brother Jonathan to inform him of his arrest at 2:30 am. Later that morning, however, Col. Firas claimed that Mr. Kuttab had been questioned for only fifteen minutes and then released. Later that afternoon, in response to queries from the international press as well as several ministers in your government and the United States Consulate, the authorities acknowledged that Mr. Kuttab was still in custody. At that time the authorities reportedly told Jonathan Kuttab that they would not interrogate Daoud or bring charges until Your Excellency had returned from Cairo.

Attorney General Khaled Al-Qidrah told Agence France-Presse today, May 23, that he is investigating Mr. Kuttab for "violating journalism regulations," and asserted that he would be brought to trial if evidence is found. While we do not know the basis of such "violations," we cannot accept that they provide a legitimate basis for detaining Mr. Kuttab or any other journalist.

Since this morning, Mr. Kuttab has been denied visits by members of his family and US Consular officials, apparently at the explicit orders of your office in Gaza. According to family members, the police insisted that only Your Excellency could reverse the detention order, and that they had received instructions that no one could visit Mr. Kuttab without authorization from your office. Persons who attempted to visit Mr. Kuttab today told Human Rights Watch that Mr. Kuttab had signaled them that he had initiated or was about to initiate a hunger strike to protest his illegal detention.

Human Rights Watch strongly urges you to order Mr. Kuttab's immediate release. We also urge you to instruct the security forces and other law enforcement officials under your authority to cease all activities such as this which appear intended to intimidate Palestinian journalists and media workers from exercising their right to free expression and to interfere with the right of Palestinian citizens to information that allows them to participate meaningfully in public life and political affairs.

Sincerely,
/original signed/
Kenneth Roth
Executive Director

cc:
Chief Representative Hasan Abdel Rahman, Palestine Liberation Organization, Washington, DC

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