RUTHFULLY YOURS

RAMALLAH, West Bank – A Palestinian reporter tagged in a Facebook image that mocked the Palestinian president said Saturday he faces trial for insulting a public figure despite already being detained for more than 50 days.

Mamdouh Hamamreh said security forces detained him in September, just hours after the image appeared on his Facebook feed. The picture showed President Mahmoud Abbas standing next to an actor who plays a villain on a popular Syrian soap opera, the reporter said.

Abbas’ security forces have previously mined social networks to catch dissenters. In November, an atheist blogger was arrested after posting incendiary comments about Islam on Facebook.

Hamamreh works for Al-Quds TV, which is sympathetic to the militant Islamic group Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip after seizing it from Abbas’ forces in 2007. Since then, Abbas’ self-rule government forces have frequently cracked down on suspected Hamas loyalists, including reporters, in the West Bank.

Gaza’s Hamas rulers have also gone after Abbas loyalists, opponents and reporters. Riham Abu Aita, a media rights activist, said about 30 reporters were detained in the West Bank and Gaza in 2009, but did not have figures yet for 2010.

Ghassan Khatib, spokesman for the Abbas government, said there is considerable free speech in the West Bank but that special circumstances needed to be taken into account — an apparent reference to the bitter rivalry between Abbas and Hamas.

Hamamreh said he was held for over 50 days in a Palestinian lockup after the picture appeared on his feed. He said he had nothing to do with the image. He was released in November and a hearing has been set for next month.

“I censor myself now,” Hamamreh said. “I’m careful of what I say.”

In another development, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said she “deplores” the continued imprisonment of prominent Palestinian activist Abdullah Abu Rahmeh by Israel. Since 2005, Abu Rahmeh has been a key figure in weekly protests against Israel’s separation barrier which cuts into West Bank land.

He was to have been released Nov. 18, after serving his yearlong sentence. However, earlier this month, an Israeli military court extended his sentence by four months following a request by a military prosecutor.

Israel has portrayed the weekly protests as violent riots. Routinely, Palestinian demonstrators throw stones at Israeli forces who fire tear gas, stun grenades, rubber bullets and at times live rounds.

Ashton has spoken out on Abu Rahmeh’s behalf in the past.

In Friday’s statement, she said the Palestinians have the right to engage in peaceful demonstrations.

Abu Rahmeh is a “peaceful Palestinian activist committed to nonviolent protest against the route of the Israeli separation barrier through his West Bank village of Bilin,” she said.

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Associated Press reporter Diaa Hadid contributed to this report from Jerusalem