FIFA urges support for Mahmoud al-Sarsak

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — FIFA on Tuesday urgently called on the Israeli Football Association to raise the plight of detained hunger-striking soccer player Mahmoud al-Sarsak with Israeli authorities.

Al-Sarsak has been on hunger strike for 86 days to demand his release. He has been imprisoned by Israel without charge or trial since July 2009.

FIFA urged IFA to draw attention to al-Sarsak’s situation “with the aim of ensuring the physical integrity of the concerned players as well as their right for due process,” a report on its website said.

Al-Sarsak’s lawyer Mohammad Jabarein told Ma’an that al-Sarsak started drinking milk on Sunday after doctors warned he was at imminent risk of losing consciousness and paralysis.

Al-Sarsak agreed to drink milk to prolong his life until a judicial review, scheduled for Thursday, but will refuse all supplements if he is not released, Jabarein said.

Al-Sarsak had joined the local soccer team in his Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip at 14, becoming the youngest footballer to play in the Palestine Liga A at the time. The midfielder attracted the attention of a German coach while playing for the Palestine national team in Norway.

“He always dreamed of playing outside the country, to represent Palestine through playing for an Arab or an international team, and he was talented enough,” his brother Emad told Reuters.

The first step was to play for a team in the West Bank. But Israeli security arrested him on July 22, 2009, at the Erez crossing from the blockaded Gaza Strip, the only route to Palestinian territory in the occupied West Bank

(maannews.net / 13.06.2012)

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