France stresses rights of detained Palestinians

France stressed on Tuesday the need for Israel to apply its "administrative detention" policies only in exceptional circumstances and to respect a certain number of rights for detained Palestinians under this widely-protested and controversial security measure. There are several hundred Palestinians frequently held under this detention, which has no legal basis as it is done through military courts where defendants have no say in their defence and do not have proper, legal representation. A number of Palestinians have been forced to go on lengthy and dangerous hunger strikes to draw attention to their plight, whereby they have been thrown in jail on suspicion or the word of a security official. French Foreign Ministry spokesman Philippe Lalliot said that Paris brings up these questions in almost daily contact with the Israeli authorities. Lalliot said France makes its views known on the need for the exclusively "exceptional use" of administrative detention and to do so "in conditions that respect a certain number of fundamental guarantees, particularly everything that is linked the right to the defence and the right to a fair trial in a reasonable timeframe." "We broach the issue of the Palestinian prisoners in our close, permanent almost daily contacts with the Israeli authorities," the spokesman remarked.