The two Spanish and Brazilian activists from the "Gaza Flotilla", arrested by Israel off the coast of Greece, were presented to Israeli justice on Sunday with a view to extending their detention, according to an Israeli NGO.
The Spaniard Saif Abu Keshek and the Brazilian Thiago Avila arrived in the morning at the court in Ashkelon, the coastal town where they are detained, and the "hearing has begun", Miriam Azem Adalah, of the NGO for the defense of Israeli human rights Adalah.
“The state asked to extend their detention by four days,” she said.
The NGO's lawyers had previously been able to see the two activists in their prison in Shikma.
According to Ms. Adalah, they described an arrest as "extremely brutal," and were informed that they would be questioned by Israeli domestic intelligence on suspicion of "affiliation with a terrorist organization."
According to the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Saif Abu Keshek is "one of the leaders" of the Palestinian Conference for Palestinians Abroad (PCPA), a charity accused by the United States and Israel of being affiliated with the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, in power in Gaza.
As for Thiago Avila, he "works with PCPA and is suspected of illegal activities", according to the ministry.
Brazil and Spain denounced their arrest, and Spanish diplomacy denied any link between its national and Hamas.
Israel "has not provided any evidence to support this accusation", declared the head of Spanish diplomacy José Manuel Albares on Saturday, and even if this were the case, "there are legal avenues in democracy, in the rule of law", to relay them.
He described the arrest of the Spanish national in international waters, “outside any jurisdiction”, as “completely illegal” and “unacceptable”.
Some 175 activists of many nationalities were arrested on Thursday, on around twenty boats of this new flotilla aiming, according to its organizers, to break the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip, where access to humanitarian aid remains severely restricted.
The arrest, "carried out peacefully" according to Israel, took place hundreds of kilometers from Gaza, in international waters off Crete, much further from the Israeli coast than previous flotilla interceptions. Several countries have denounced an “illegal” operation.
Israel released all the militants in Greece after an agreement with its authorities, except Thiago Ávila and Saif Abu Keshek.
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