Israel refuses treatment to Barghuti despite declining health: supporters

for background see: http://www.freebarghouti.org/

Israel refuses treatment to Barghuti despite declining health:
supporters

Agence France Presse
2 December 2003

JERUSALEM, Dec 2-- The Palestinian accused of masterminding the
intifada, Marwan Barghuti, has been refused access to a doctor by
Israeli prison authorities despite declining health, campaigners for
his freedom said Tuesday.

The 44-year-old leader of the mainstream Fatah movement in the West
Bank is suffering from back, throat and stomach problems as a result
of being held in "cramped, humid and isolated conditions", according
to the Campaign to Free Marwan Barghuti.

"The prison adminstration has refused to authorise a doctor to
examine and treat him despite repeated demands," the group said in a
statement.

The association said that Barghuti had been kept in solitary
confinement for the past 11 months and forbidden from receiving
visitors since his arrest in April 2002.

There was no immediate response from the Israeli prison service.

Barghuti is standing trial on charges of murdering or abetting the
killings of 26 people, as well as heading the militant Al-Aqsa
Martyrs Brigades, a largely autonomous and radical offshoot of
Fatah.