Ramallah- 19/5/2015 The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) expresses its concern over the assault on Al-Jazeera Net correspondent Ahmad Abu Fayyad on Sunday (17.5.2015) by the Palestinian Police in Gaza. MADA demands investigation in this assault and to hold the responsible accountable.
Abu Fayyad reported to MADA that he went to cover the visit of the Turkish Minister of Al-Awqaf (Religion) to Gaza and the press conference that was supposed to be held according to an invitation by the Awqaf Ministry in Gaza to journalists. A plain-clothed security man pushed Fayyad while he was trying to take a picture for the Turkish minister; others expelled him from the hall which lies in the 4th floor of the ministry building; where outside another security guy hit him on his head and kept pushing him outside. He said: “The hit was painful and I do not know what they hit me with, my head swelled as a result of it. The pain was severe that I started hysterically asking them “why you are beating me” but they kept pushing me until we arrived the ground floor where they continued beating and pushing me.”
He added: “When we arrived to the ground floor, they tried to transfer me to the police station; I rode my motorcycle and headed to Al-Abbas police station followed by the police vehicle. When we arrived, the pain got even more severe, I told them that I need to go to the hospital; they drove me to Al-Shifa’ hospital where they gave me an injection (I paid for the treatment) and drove me back to the police station where they told me that I am detained with an accusation of assaulting the security forces. I was detained until 3:30.”
He pointed out that the Media Office Director Bader Bader arrived to the police station and told him that the spokesperson of the Ministry of Interior Iyad Al-Bozom asks him to write a pledge to abide the Ministry of Interior’s decisions that Fayyad is the one who pushed the police men. Al-Bazem called Fayyad and told him to write the pledge and apologize but he refused and replied that he was beaten and assaulted.
MADA considers the serious danger of what faced Abu Fayyad besides preventing him and other journalists from covering the event, is how the way the official sides dealt with the assault trying to accuse him of attacking the policemen, in order to justify a number of violations he previously faced. MADA urges the need to investigate the details of the incident and to publish them as well as to hold the involved in this assault accountable.
Al-Jazeera Net correspondent Ahmad Abu Fayyad (Photo By: Wataniya Net)
