The Israel Prison Services (IPS) punitively transferred Palestinian-French human rights defender and lawyer Salah Hammouri to a higher risk Israeli isolation prison facility called Hadarim after writing a letter to French President Emmanuel Macron, according to the Justice for Salah campaign.

“In the past 10 days, the Israeli occupation prison administration classified HRD and lawyer Salah Hammouri as ‘Sagav’, which means a prisoner with a high degree of danger”, the campaign said in a statement. “This entails excessive harassment with the use of hand- and foot cuffs in addition to repeated night raids to the prisoner’s cell where forces turn everything upside-down”.

“All of the above happened after Salah’s letter to Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, addressing him as a fellow French citizen, reminding him of his obligations as head of state to ensure his immediate release and end of persecution”, it added.

The campaign said this “arbitrary classification and transfer are yet another measure of persecution against Salah and against anyone who tries to get their sounds heard.”