JERUSALEM: Israeli authorities have extended the detention without trial of a Palestinian politician by four months, ensuring she will remain behind bars for more than a year, the army said Thursday.
Khalida Jarrar, 55, was arrested on July 2, 2017 for being a senior member in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a movement considered a terrorist organisation by Israel, the United States and the European Union.
The extension was decided on Monday by a military court but was made public Thursday.
Details of the accusations against her are secret, as is customary with Israeli administrative detention orders, which allow detention without trial for renewable six-month periods.
A legislator in the largely defunct Palestinian parliament, she was given a six-month administrative detention order in July 2017.
The detention was extended in December by another six months “after security personnel found she still poses a substantial threat,” the Israeli army said then.
Many PFLP leaders are in custody and Jarrar has been jailed multiple times.
She had only been released in June 2016 after 14 months in an Israeli jail for allegedly encouraging attacks against Israelis.
Israel says administrative detention is intended to allow authorities to hold suspects while continuing to gather evidence, with the aim of preventing attacks in the meantime.
But the system has been criticised by Palestinians, human rights groups and members of the international community who say Israel abuses the measure.
