Detainee critically ill after Israeli soldiers injected him with contaminated needle

Saturday April 19, 2008 23:23 by IMEMC Staff

Family of detainee Othman Mohammad Abu Khurj, 38, from Zababda village near the northern West Bank city of Jenin, said that their son is facing gradually deteriorating medical conditions after a soldier injected him with a needle polluted with Hepatitis C.

His wife said that her husband, who was sentenced to one life-term and additional twenty years, suffered last summer from pain in his teeth, and one of the soldiers injected him with a polluted needle causing Hepatitis C.

She added that the Prison Administration is refusing to provide him with the needed medical treatment, although prison doctors said that he needs urgent treatment which is not available at the prison clinic.

She also said that he submitted his case to an Israeli court and the soldiers admitted to that they did inject him with a dirty needle, but insisted that he should first drop the case before he receives the needed treatment.

He is currently unable to eat and is only receiving IV glucose. The detainee said that he will not drop the case, even if it will cost him his life.

His wife voiced an appeal to human rights groups, locally and internationally, to intervene and save the life of her husband, as he has the internationally-recognized right to receive the needed medical treatment without any preconditions.

She appealed for her husband to be transferred to a hospital in Egypt to receive the needed medical attention.

Detainee Abu Khurj was kidnapped by the army in the summer of 2003 and was sentenced to one life term and an additional twenty years. He suffers from several chronic diseases in addition to Hepatitis C and is gradually losing weight.

This report was translated from Arabic, original article by Rami Daibes of PNN

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