HAIFA, September 13, 2018 (WAFA) – Israeli police detained on Wednesday Raja Eghbaria, a member of the High Follow-Up Committee for Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel and the leader of the Abnaa al- Balad political movement, on charges of his writings on social media as the Khadera Magistrates Court ruled on the same day to continue to detain Eghbaria for five days in order to allow Israeli police to complete their investigation, which is focused on alleged "incitement to terrorism" due to his Facebook posts.

Israeli police interrogated Eghbaria for seven hours about Facebook status updates he posted over the past 12 months, the Haifa-based Adalah human rights center said in a press release on Thursday.

Adalah Attorney Rabea Eghbaria and private attorney Ahmed Khalifa, defending Raja Eghbaria, argued that the request to extend detention was not legally justified.

The attorneys emphasized that the detention could not be extended because Israeli police had already admitted that they had exhausted all their questions during the previous day‘s lengthy interrogation. In addition, they argued that the release of Eghbaria – a long-standing political leader - would not constitute a security threat to the state or impede the police‘s ongoing investigation.

After the prosecution presented classified materials, the court decided to extend Eghbaria‘s detention until Monday.

Adalah and Attorney Khalifa are slated to file an appeal on Thursday against the decision and await a hearing. Adalah General Director Attorney Hassan Jabareen will represent Eghbaria on the appeal in court, said the press release.

M.K.