An Israeli court on Monday extended the detention of Sheikh Raed Salah, the head of the Islamic Movement in Israel, until Sept. 6.
“The Israeli Magistrate Court in the northern city of Haifa convened on Monday to consider a request by the attorney-general to keep Sheikh Salah in detention until the end of his trial,” Salah’s lawyer, Khaled Zbarqa, told Anadolu Agency.
“The court meeting focused on last week’s indictment of Sheikh Salah," Zbarqa said. “We have asked for his [temporary] release until the conclusion of [trial] proceedings.”
According to the lawyer, the court on Monday postponed the decision until Sept. 6, “meaning Sheikh Salah will remain in custody until Sept. 6, at which point he will either be kept in detention or conditionally released”.
“Now we are waiting for the hearing,” he said.
Describing the issue as “politicized,” Zbarqa asserted that last week’s indictment violated his client’s “fundamental rights as a religious leader and prominent political figure”.
Israeli police arrested Salah in August from his home in the northern city of Umm al-Fahm, accusing him of “membership in an illegal group” and “inciting violence”.
Salah's Islamic Movement was formally outlawed by the Israeli authorities in 2015. Since then, Salah has been detained several times, while the authorities have shut dozens of organizations -- including charities -- over alleged links to his group.
Israel has also banned Salah, long seen as an icon of Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation, from traveling abroad for reasons of “national security”.