Death of Nizar Banat activist ‘unnatural’: Palestinian Authority | Occupied West Bank News

The PA justice minister said Banat is an activist who has suffered physical violence, with the death of the detainee being an exceptional case.

Minister of Justice of the Palestinian Authority and chairman of the commission of inquiry Death of activist and dissident Nizar Banat he says they suffered physical violence from Banat and his death was “unnatural”.

Mohammed al-Shalaldeh said in an interview with a Palestinian television official that the first medical report on the death of 43-year-old Banat on June 24 indicated that he had suffered physical violence.

The activist was killed when he was arrested by PA security forces in the West Bank city of Hebron. Al-Shalaldeh said Banat lost consciousness when he was transferred to the Palestinian Authority’s preventive security center.

Al-Shalaldeh was taken by members of the security forces to the Alia Government Hospital in Banat Hebron in their vehicles, but was found dead on arrival when he was found alive when he was arrested from his home.

The minister concluded that the cause of Banat’s death – one of the strongest criticisms of the Palestinian Authority – was a neurological shock, which led to acute heart and lung failure.

Al-Shalaldeh also said the incident was an exceptional case and was not part of the model made by the PA against critics.

The commission of inquiry, according to al-Shalaldeh, did its job “objectively, impartially and in secret,” and its report has been handed over to PA Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayeh, who will hand it over to the head of military justice. to take legal action and investigate suspects.

According to the family, Banat is a “murderer”

However, Banat’s family has ruled out opposition to the commission of inquiry and said it did not speak to the bodies and did not arrest and take the testimonies of witnesses or witnesses who were in Banat at the time of the attack.

According to the initial autopsy, Banat was beaten on the head, chest, neck, legs and hands, less than an hour had passed since his arrest and death.

Banat’s family accused them of killing PA security forces.

On Monday, Banat’s father asked for a public trial of the security forces involved in his son’s arrests.

“Nizar was killed after being dragged from his bed, and all the forces that made the arrest and murder under the cover of darkness should be taken to a public trial,” Khalil Banat said at a press conference.

The occupied West Bank has seen several demonstrations denouncing Banat’s death and demanding the resignation of PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

There were protests violently oppressed Influenced by the PA security forces and clothing police, several international and human rights bodies expressed concern about the actions of the security forces, particularly the attacks on journalists.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory said one of the rights monitors covering the protests in the West Bank city of Ramallah was among dozens of people attacked in a “completely unacceptable manner”.

“Attacks by people in civilian clothes were attempted to be punched, the use of pepper spray and the phone they were using to document the incident,” he said on Facebook.