RAMALLAH, September 14, 2017 (WAFA) – The Ramallah-based Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) strongly condemned on Thursday the Hamas-run Gaza Magistrates Court for sentencing to six months in prison a Palestinian journalist for reporting on corruption in the department of patients’ referrals in Gaza’s Ministry of Health.
MADA said Hajar Abu Samra (Harb) was sentenced in absentia to six months in prison and $300 fine for a report published a year ago exposing corruption in the department of referrals of Gaza patients for treatment outside the besieged Strip. The report was made for Al-Arab TV network.
According to MADA, the court sentenced Harb in absentia without the knowledge of the defendant or her lawyer who were not informed of the court proceedings but knew about the ruling three months after it was issued and only through the social media.
Harb is in Jordan getting treatment for cancer when she was sentenced, said MADA.
“The decision was issued more than three months ago but remained hidden without the knowledge of Hajar or her lawyer except from what was published on social media in the last two days,” it said in a statement.
Harb’s attorney, Mirvat Nahhal, from al-Mezan human rights center in Gaza, told MADA that she was surprised by the ruling, which she did not know about and was not informed of the court hearings and that she learned about it only through social media even though the decision was issued on June 4.
Nahhal had represented Harb since the publishing of the report a year ago and following harassment and incitement against her.
The ruling became known when a physician mentioned in Harb’s report for getting bribes to issue referrals published the ruling on his Facebook page writing that “justice has been served and I won over injustice and the criminal journalist.”
The physician and the Gaza Government Media Center have appeared in the Gaza court hearings as witnesses against Harb, who was charged with defamation against the Ministry of Health for reporting about financial and administrative corruption in the department of referrals, reporting false and subjective news about the Ministry of Health that affected social fabric of society, and using a pseudonym by claiming her name was Muna Harb, which attorney Nahhal said was her official name.
Nahhal said the Gaza prosecutor had previously asked for the evidence that came in Harb’s report against the physician, asking for the way Harb was able to obtain these documents. However, Nahhal said she refused to turn over the documents to the prosecutor and instead turned them to the Government Media Center. As a result, the physician withdrew his complaint against Harb and agreed on a compromise agreement.
The Palestinian Journalists‘ Syndicate has also condemned the court ruling against Harb.
M.K.
