(CPJ/IFEX) – CPJ has expressed grave concern about the case of Cosette Elias Ibrahim, a Lebanese journalism student and freelance reporter who was abducted by Israeli forces in the town of Rumaish in Israeli-occupied south Lebanon. **Updates IFEX alert of 14 September 1999** On or about 2 September 1999, Ibrahim, a student at the Lebanese […]
(CPJ/IFEX) – CPJ has expressed grave concern about the case of Cosette Elias
Ibrahim, a Lebanese journalism student and freelance reporter who was
abducted by Israeli forces in the town of Rumaish in Israeli-occupied south
Lebanon.
**Updates IFEX alert of 14 September 1999**
On or about 2 September 1999, Ibrahim, a student at the Lebanese University
who has also worked as a freelance reporter for several Lebanese newspapers
including the daily “Al-Liwaa”, was taken by Israeli forces who stormed her
family’s home in Rumaish. She had been in Rumaish to visit family, but also
planned to report on the living conditions of people in occupied south
Lebanon. Ibrahim was reportedly taken to Khiam Prison inside of the occupied
zone.
According to Lebanese journalists and local human rights organizations,
Ibrahim was detained for refusing to “collaborate” with Israeli forces, who
often arrest residents of the occupied zone on these grounds. She is also
accused of having provided information to the Lebanese army on Israeli
military activities in the region.
CPJ notes with deep concern that Ibrahim is the third journalist detained by
Israeli or South Lebanon Army (SLA) forces in south Lebanon in the past
three years, according to CPJ’s research.
Recommended Action
Send appeals to the prime minister:
threat to the internationally-recognised right of journalists to practice
their profession freely
of detainees in Khiam
Prison, you are concerned that she may be at risk of such abuse
be released immediately, and that all journalists in southern Lebanon be
allowed to practice their profession without interference from Israel or the
SLA
Appeals To
His Excellency Ehud Barak
Prime Minister of the State of Israel
Office of the Prime Minister
3 Kaplan Street
Kiryat Ben-Gurion
Jerusalem, Israel
Fax: + 972 2 266 4838
Please copy appeals to the source if possible.
