RAMALLAH (Palestine Foundation Information Center) The Al-Ahd International Foundation has held the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) fully responsible for the fate of detainee Abbas Al-Sayed (59 years old) from the city of Tulkarem. This statement comes in light of preliminary testimony from a detainee who recently emerged from Ramon prison, reporting that Al-Sayed has been subjected to horrific torture and mistreatment.
The Foundation emphasized in its statement on Friday that since the beginning of the genocide in Gaza, the IPS has targeted the leaders of the prisoner movement through torture, isolation, transfer, and ongoing mistreatment.
It asserted that what has happened to detainee Abbas Al-Sayed amounts to an attempted murder, similar to what many other detainees have faced since the onset of the genocide. The Foundation stressed that time is a critical factor in the fate of Palestinian detainees due to the dangerous measures continuously implemented by the IPS against them, primarily torture, starvation, and medical neglect.
The detainee testified that the prison guards stormed Al-Sayed’s cell, brutally assaulted him, and transferred him to an unknown location.
In recent weeks, Al-Sayed has suffered brutal assaults, as the IPS deliberately takes him out every night to punishment cells, shackles his hands and feet, and forces him to sleep on his stomach for long hours, which has caused him numerous health issues, especially in the cold weather.
The detainee further said that Al-Sayed has long suffered from diabetes, which has led to the spreading of boils all over his body, significantly affecting his eyesight, while the IPS refuses to provide him with treatment.
Al-Sayed was arrested in 2002 after an eight-month manhunt, during which he faced several assassination attempts by the occupation forces following a widespread invasion of Tulkarem. The unjust occupation courts sentenced him to 35 life sentences and 100 years.
He was accused of being responsible for the “Park Hotel” human bombing attack carried out by the martyr Abdul-Baset Awda, which resulted in the death of 32 settlers and injuries to 150 others, as well as his involvement in the “Hasharon” martyrdom operation conducted by Mahmoud Marmash, which killed 5 settlers and injured several others.
During his detention, Al-Sayed has endured numerous forms of oppression and mistreatment, including long periods of isolation, deprivation of visits, and continuous transfers.
Al-Sayed has a son and a daughter. His son Abdullah graduated from Khadori University with a degree in e-commerce and currently manages a small business.
Al-Sayed holds a master’s degree in Israeli studies from Abu Dis University and recently completed a second master’s degree titled “Cryptocurrency: Its Finances and the Legality of Mining,” from the College of Da’wah for Islamic Studies.
He also holds a degree in mechanical engineering and specialized before his arrest in respiratory device engineering.
Al-Sayed is considered one of the prominent leaders of the Palestinian prisoner movement and a leader of Hamas and its armed wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, in the West Bank.
