LONDON: The Committee to Protect Journalists has condemned horrifying testimony shared by Palestinian freelance journalist Sami Al‑Sai, who was allegedly subjected to torture and sexual violence while being held in Israel’s Megiddo Prison.
Al‑Sai, who has reported for Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera Mubasher and local station Al‑Fajer TV, detailed his account during a public forum organized by the Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms in Ramallah on Sunday. He was released from prison in June this year.
Israeli authorities detained the journalist in the occupied West Bank on Feb. 23, 2024, and held him under administrative detention — a policy that allows suspects to be held without formal charges or access to evidence — on the grounds that he posed a “threat to national security,” Al‑Sai said in his testimony.
While in custody at Megiddo Prison, he described severe mistreatment, including beatings, blindfolding, shackling and humiliation. He testified that guards also sexually assaulted him in an incident involving the insertion of a hard object into his body.
In his account, Al‑Sai said he was taken by several guards to an area of the prison where he was repeatedly beaten and insulted before the sexual assault occurred.
