Recent testimony and access to previously disclosed investigative material shed new light on the arrests of the Artistic Director of The Freedom Theatre, Nabil Al-Raee, and the co-founder of the theatre, Zakaria Zubeidi.
Nabil Al-Raee’s lawyer, Smadar Ben-Natan has obtained investigative material previously withheld by the Israeli Security, while Zakaria Zubeidi for the first time since his arrest has been able to meet with members of The Freedom Theatre and give a brief testimony.
Nabil Al-Raee was arrested three weeks after he, along with several other employees of The Freedom Theatre, had been summoned to an interrogation at an Israeli military base where Nabil answered all questions posed to him. He was held in incommunicado detention from June 6 until June 19 and only after his lawyer petitioned the Israeli Supreme Court was he allowed to meet with his legal representative on June 19.
Nabil’s lawyer Smadar Ben-Natan gives the following testimony:
“The Israeli Security claimed that the reason for the arrest was suspicions of Nabil being involved in the murder of Juliano Mer Khamis. These allegations were found to be groundless after the first two weeks of detention. Nevertheless, the Israeli security service continued to ask for his prolonged detention under this grave suspicion, and meanwhile tried to obtain evidence on other issues.
This proved to be fruitless and on June 28 a military judge ordered Nabil’s release after no evidence had been obtained against him. However, an appeal by the military prosecution was approved by the military court of appeals. The prosecution argued that they only wanted to perform another lie-detector test on Nabil. Results of such tests are inadmissible in courts (including military ones).
Nabil was promised that he would be released once he had passed the test. Under the effect of this false promise he gave some more information (innocent information about driving his neighbour, Zakaria Zubeidi in town and buying him cigarettes occasionally, shooting in the air with Zakaria’s private gun once at a new year party) and passed the test successfully. The military prosecution used this information to charge Nabil, and the promise to release him was not kept.
One of the main accusations in the charge sheet is assisting a “wanted person” – Zakaria Zubeidi. The prosecution withheld any information about the amnesty granted to Zakaria since 2007, accusing Nabil of assisting him from 2006 on. This despite the fact that Nabil only started working at The Freedom Theatre in 2007 and had very limited contact with Zakaria at that time.
The prosecution requested to keep Nabil in detention until the end of the proceedings against him. That could be for a very long period of time.”
On July 11th, the judge again decided that Nabil would be released. However, the prosecution was given another 24 hours to appeal. A new hearing will be held on July 12th.
Zakaria Zubeidi, co-founder of The Freedom Theatre, has been incarcerated by the Palestinian Authority since May 13. Without justification or indication of the charges against him, and contrary to Palestinian law, he was transferred to Jericho and later transferred from a civil to a military court. Zakaria has also been subjected to inhumane treatment and his lawyer has not been allowed to meet him in private.
Zakaria is a former activist of the armed Palestinian resistance, who in 2007 decided to stop all military actions and commit himself to cultural resistance. Despite this he has been arrested twice without justification: in December 2011 and again in May 2012.
Micaela Miranda, Nabil Al-Raee’s wife, was for the first time able to meet Zakaria in prison together with some of his family members and relay the words of Zakaria to the outside world:
“Zakaria tried to let us know that he had been forced to stand, tied with his arms up for two days in a row without being able to sit down or sleep. He has had pain in his legs and back since then. He also mentioned having to drink water from the toilet and being placed in solitary confinement for 50 days. All this was mentioned in a careful way and he told me: “We could do a play about this, I keep thinking about that”. Abed [Zakaria’s brother] told me afterwards that he felt Zakaria was afraid to talk, so I don’t know if we should come out with this, maybe he is afraid of the consequences of speaking out.
Zakaria told us that what the Palestinian Authority want from him is about 50 guns and that these guns belonged to the martyrs of the second Intifada and had been confiscated by the Israelis. The investigators keep on asking him the same questions over and over again.
Zakaria believes that the decision is in Mahmoud Abbas’ hands and he gave us two phone numbers for people to call to ask about him: +972 (0)599000011 (Mahmoud Abbas’ councelor) and +972(0)2000011 (Said Abualheja, Ministry of Interior).”
For more information:
Jonatan Stanczak, Managing Director of The Freedom Theatre jonatan@thefreedomtheatre.org and +46 (0)707908296
Micaela Miranda, Pedagogical Manager of The Freedom Theatre
micaela@thefreedomtheatre.org and +972 (0)597016230.
