THREAT Jihad Yusuf Ismail An-Najjar

Jihad Yusuf Ismail An-Najjar, born in 1981 Hebron / West Bank was arrested at a barrier at the entrance of the town in 2001.
He was transferred immediately to the center of “Atsion”in the south of Bethlehem, and then transferred directly to the center of investigation in “Maskobiah”/ Jerusalem and was there subjected over 1,5 months to military interrogation and solitary confinement.
Jihad was severely tortured in order to force him to sign a confession prepared in advance, but he refused and denied all charges against him and remained steadfast.
After all he was transferred to Nafha Prison and more than 150 military court hearings were held by the occupation without judgement or to prove charges against him.
The public prosecutor said: “We do not have any other evidence than the security risk for the public community”.
On 24/3/2005, another military trial was held for Jihad three judges acquitted him of the sixteen charges brought against him, including participating in activities which belong to the Hamas Movement and murder of one Israeli soldier.
The military prosecution rejected the court's decision and appealed the decision of acquittal, asked to extend the detention period for extra 24 hours.
The deadline expired without providing new evidences. Another hearing was held in 2006 where Jihad was again announced as innocent.
His brother, Adnan, said that this decision was against the internal security system and the prosecution appealed for the second time to extend the detention of Jihad for a period of 72 hours to submit new information.

Life sentence
Military trials continued against Jihad until the date of 04/12/2007, when he was brought to the courtroom in Ofer military court.
Three new judges issued their decision  which acquitted Jihad of all charges against him except for the attempt to kill a soldier.
As result Jihad got one sentence on lifetime after the two judgements of acquittal.
Adnan said that his brothers lawyer objected to the courts decision and appealed against the life imprisonment. After more than two years, a hearing was held for the appeals court again in 2011.
Only one judge leaded the hearing to read in a few minutes the decision to reject the objection of the lawyer and confirming the sentence on lifetime.

His brother continued saying plaintively: “We do not want to stop here, we decided to go to the Supreme Court , we have not finished the era of military courts”
“We will do everything we can do for the release of my brother through all courts and the judiciary” Adnan added.
Jihad has joined his hunger striking brothers in their battle of Empty Stomachs.
The occupation perceives Jihad as one of those who are leading and urging for the hunger strike; and as a result, the prison administration transferred him more than once.
At the end of April last year the management of Asqelon Prison transferred Jihad to section 4 of Nafha; and in March 2012 he was transferred to Eichel.