The Israeli Magistrate's Court in Nazareth postponed for two weeks the trial sessions of the six Palestinian prisoners who escaped from Gilboa prison last month.

It also postponed the trial of 5 other prisoners accused by the Israeli authorities of covering up and assisting the six prisoners in the escape process.

On Sunday morning, the court held a session during which it read the indictments submitted against the prisoners, and decided to extend their detention until the end of the judicial procedures.

Lawyers for the prisoners' defense said that their clients are suffering from difficult conditions, as the Israeli Prison Service continues to hold them in solitary confinement.

And at the beginning of this month, the Israeli prosecution filed indictments against the six Palestinian prisoners who escaped from the highly-security Gilboa prison, before being re-arrested.


indictments

The official Israeli channel, Kan, said that the public prosecution presented indictments before the Nazareth Central Court (north) against the six prisoners, including escaping from legal custody (prison), without including security charges such as planning to carry out attacks, and the maximum penalty for escaping from prison is 7 years, according to the same source.

While indictments were filed against 5 other prisoners on charges of helping the six escape, without clarifying the maximum penalty for that accusation.

On September 6, the six Palestinian prisoners escaped from their cell out of the prison through a tunnel they dug over a period of months, and were subsequently re-arrested. They are: Muhammad, Mahmoud al-Ardah, Zakaria al-Zubaidi, Yaqoub Qadri, Ayham Kammajji and Munadil Nafeat.

Israel detains about 4,850 Palestinians in 23 prisons and detention centers, including 41 female prisoners, 225 children, and 520 administrative detainees (without charge), according to institutions specialized in prisoners' affairs.


assault

The Palestinian Prisoners Club (non-governmental) said that two days ago, Israeli forces stormed a section of Gilboa Prison in northern Israel, and assaulted 90 prisoners.

The Prisoner's Club stated in a statement that special forces of repression, heavily armed, stormed Section 1 of Gilboa Prison.

According to the club, these forces "carried out extensive searches inside the station, and assaulted the prisoners, who numbered about 90, and the prison administration cut off their water and electricity."


The Prisoner's Club indicated that Gilboa prison, from which 6 prisoners escaped last month, "has been subjected, and is still, to double operations of abuse, including incursions (...) in an attempt to keep them (prisoners) in a state of instability and impose more control and supervision on them."