Switzerland editions, deportation of Palestinian American journalist Ali Abunimah | Freedom of press news
Washington, DC – Palestinian American journalist But Abunimah He confirmed that the Swiss authorities had released and deported him after being held for three days.
Abunimah, the executive director of the Electronic Intifada Publication, suggested that Switzerland had arrested him on Monday for his advocacy of Palestinian rights.
“My ‘Crime’? Because he is a journalist talking about Palestine and against the Israeli genocide and colonial savage immigrants and those who help him and renew him,” he wrote.
Abunimah was arrested in Zurich on Saturday before he was supposed to give a speech in the city, causing anger from the advocate of Palestinian rights.
The Swiss Embassy in Washington, DC, did not immediately respond to the request of Al Jazeere for comment.
Reuters news agency reported on Sunday that Switzerland police had been banned from entering and other measures under the Law on the Immigration of the Earth as a reason for the arrest of Abunah’s.
Palestinian American journalist said that when police were questioning him, he was accused of “offending Swiss law” without giving special charges.
He said he was “cut off from communication with the outside world, in a cell 24 hours a day,” adding that he was unable to contact his family. He added that he returned his phone only at the door of the plane that flew to Istanbul.
Abunimah noted that in a period when he was taken to prison like “dangerous criminals”, Switzerland welcomed Isaac Isaac Herzoga President Israeli’s forum for the world economic forum. in Davos.
Herzog caused controversy because of his attitude about Israel’s war against Gaza, who killed more than 47,000 Palestinians. He said earlier that there were no “ignorant civilians” in Gaza.
“This difficulty lasted three days, but that taste of prison was more than enough to leave me in even more fear of Palestinian heroes who endure the months and years in the prison of the genocidal oppressor,” he told Abunih.
“More than ever, I know that the debt we owe to them is the one we can never pay and all of them have to be free and they must remain our focus.”
I’m free! I wrote this on the plane and publish it immediately after landing in Istanbul. On Monday night, I was brought to the Zurich Airport in foxes, in a small metal cage in a prison van without windows and police brought to the plane. This is after three days and two … pic.twitter.com/s4bf2eeyyq
– but Abunimah (@aliabunimah) 27 January 2025
The experts of the United Nations rejected Abunah’s custody as an attack on freedom of speech.
Irene Khan, a special UN reporter for freedom of opinion and expression, described the arrest of Abunim on Saturday as a “shocking news” and invited her to release.
Francesca Albanese, a special UN reporter on Human Rights on occupied Palestinian territory, also invited the incident investigation.
“The climate surrounding Freedom of speech There is becoming more toxic in Europe and we should all be worried, “Albanese wrote in a post on social media.
Abunih’s custody came in the midst of increased clamping of pro-Palestinian voices in Europe in the middle War on Gazawhich the UN experts compared to genocide.
In April, Germany closed a conference for Palestinian rights advocates and refused to enter the British doctor Ghassan Abu Sittahwho worked in Gaza.
Activists also accused German authorities of shooting on protests During the war.
In October 2024. British anti-terrorist police executed an execution at the house of Abunih’s electronic colleague Intifada Asa Winstanley-Instanley, for which the Journalist Protection Committee (CPJ) said that it was part of the “disturbing form of the Actorism Act against journalists.”
Months earlier, the British authorities held journalist Richard Medhurst, who is loudly critical of Israeli politics for 24 hours while he arrived in London.
Medhurst said on Saturday that the investigation of “terrorism” against him was extended by May.
In gauze, Israel killed 205 journalists since the beginning of the war in October 2023, according to local authorities.
