The family of a Saudi, Abdul Rahman Al-Atawi, held in an Israeli jail is condemning an Israeli court decision to keep Al-Atawi in jail indefinitely. Al-Atawi crossed the border into Israel from the Sinai Peninsula and was arrested by Israeli soldiers. Katib Al-Shammari, appointed to Al-Atawi's case by the Human Rights Society, criticized the Society for not helping in securing Al-Atawi's release. He said he only managed to get two tickets to Egypt. He paid for the remaining expenses with the help of Al-Atawi's brother Mousa, Al-Madina reported. Mousa said he appealed for help from the Commission for Human Rights in Makkah but in three years he never received any help. He said the only time he saw any officials was when they were speaking about the issue on TV. Mousa said he will continue to seek the release of his brother despite not receiving any financial help. He said he is determined to secure the release of his brother for the sake of Al-Atawi's daughter, 11-year-old Raheel Al-Atawi, because she has suffered psychologically. The only information, Mousa said, he receives is of his brother's deteriorating health condition. “Abdul Rahman walks three steps and then falls,” Mousa said. The Mandela Institute for Human Rights in Palestine sent Lawyer Bothainah Daqmaq to visit Al-Atawi in Nastan Al-Ramlah Prison in 2007 and he said the prison's physician refused to give Al-Atawi medicine for his deteriorating condition. In 2006 Al-Atawi was moved to Eretz on the border with the Gaza Strip where he was sentenced by a military tribunal to 3 months in jail. Atawi was then moved to the hospital in al Ramlah prison, then Bersheva prison. In the last week of his sentence, in May 2005, he was moved back to Al-Ramlah jail. In protest of his continued incarceration, Al-Atawi started an 82-day hunger strike and lost 70kg in 2006.
