Dear Mr. Palestinian Attorney General

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

A Greeting

I remind Mr. Ahmad al-Mughni, the Attorney General, and Mr. Baha al-Ahmad, the Attorney General for Nablus, that the two of you held me in civil detention on 20 April 2009, in the holding cell together with civil-case detainees, for a period of three nights. I had gone to the police that day to file a complaint about the abuse, insults, and threats I had received, and I was swiftly detained on the basis of a complaint from a member of Preventive Security, and another from a member of the intelligence service — amusingly, these two complaints arrived at the very same moment.

The next day, 21 April 2009, Mr. Jamal al-Muhaisen defamed me on Al-Najah University Radio, on its morning program. The university radio station never contacted my family to verify the truth of what Mr. al-Muhaisen said, and its staff stalled when I asked them for a transcript of his statements; to this day I have not obtained that transcript.

And the two of you know full well that you detained me without any evidence whatsoever — knowing that I am a university professor, barred from traveling outside the country, and well known, and that the possibility of my fleeing from the reach of your justice is simply not credible. You used the law arbitrarily, for malicious reasons originating with apparatuses that coordinate security matters with Israel. Major General Adnan al-Damiri seized on the matter, broadcasting to the public across more than one television channel the news of Abdul-Sattar Kassem’s “civil” arrest.

For my part, I consulted a number of lawyers about filing a case against the two of you and against the one who defamed me, but they all agreed that the law serves whoever is entrusted with enforcing it, and that I must be patient until an atmosphere of justice becomes available in this country.

There is no one on this earth who can insult me — your arrest of me only raises my standing — but you have caused harm to me, to my wife, and to my children. And if there is anyone who thinks he can shake my resolve, he is mistaken: I do not forget what is my due.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “السيد النائب العام الفلسطيني” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.