Youngest Jordanian prisoner in Israel threatens to go on hunger strike

AMMAN — Mohammad Suleiman, the youngest Jordanian prisoner in Israel, has threatened to go on hunger strike if his demands are not met, his father Mahdi said Wednesday.

Mohammad wants Jordanian embassy staff to visit him and attend his court hearings.

The teenager also wants to see his father, who he has not seen since his detention in March 2013, Mahdi told The Jordan Times over the phone.

Mohammad faces 27 charges in Israel, two of which are attempted murder and injuring 18 Israeli soldiers.

The teenager, who was 16 years old when he was arrested, was in the West Bank visiting his relatives at the time of his detention.

“Mohammad threatened to go on hunger strike after he heard through my interviews on radio stations about my intention to do so on May 14,” Mahdi said, adding that other prisoners expressed their solidarity with his son and interest in joining the strike.

“The Foreign Ministry visited my son only once during his two-year imprisonment after [Deputy Rula] Hroub contacted them,” the father noted, calling on the ministry to exert more efforts to secure Mohammad’s release.

He said Hroub intervened to dissuade him from going on a hunger strike last month, and the Foreign Ministry promised to arrange a visit to his son.

Mahdi said that nothing has happened after that, which has pushed him to announce plans for another open-ended hunger strike last Tuesday.

“The Foreign Ministry contacted me again and told me they would arrange a visit to Mohammad within 10 days, so I decided to suspend my strike,” Mahdi said.

Mohammad has attended more than 50 court hearings, the last one on May 20, which was adjourned without specifying a date for the next session, the father said.

Officials at the Foreign Ministry were not available to comment on the issue.