Israel releases hunger striker Muhammad Allan after year in detention

Palestinian prisoner Muhammad Allan was released late Wednesday from Israel prison custody, ending a year-long stint in administrative detention that he undertook a 66-day hunger strike to protest.

Head of the Palestinian Authority Prisoners' Affairs Committee, Issa Qaraqe, told Ma'an that Allan was taken to the Thabet Thabet hospital in Tulkarem for a medical checkup following his release.

Allan, a 31-year-old lawyer from the southern Nablus village of Einabus, was held without charge or trial for seven months before he began a hunger strike in June to protest what he described as "the absence of law in Israeli court."

He ended the hunger strike 66 days later after Israel's Supreme Court agreed to suspend his sentence. He had slipped into a coma twice, and there were fears he may have suffered brain damage.

Israel later reinstated his sentence when his health improved. Allan immediately began another hunger strike, but ended it two days later following consultations with his lawyer. more

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