The Diplomat
An Israeli military court yesterday sentenced Spanish aid worker Juana Ruiz to 13 months in prison and a fine of 14,000 euros after she agreed to a deal with the country’s prosecution on charges of “providing services to an illegal organisation”.
Ruiz was arrested on 13 April and held for almost a month without formal charges. She has been in jail for a total of seven months, so she will only have to serve another six months and pay half of the fine to be released from prison.
According to the agreement, the charges were reduced from five to two: “providing services to an illegal organisation” as well as “receiving money and smuggling it illegally” into the West Bank, for her work as a fundraiser for the Palestinian NGO she worked for, which Israel considers illegal. Israel has accused the NGO -Health Work Committees- of being part of a network that diverted European money to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which is also considered a terrorist group by the US and the EU.
During yesterday’s brief hearing, the Israeli military judge clarified, as requested by the defence, that her case is not linked to the five NGOs designated as terrorists, nor was she aware that funds were diverted to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), as the government said last week when the agreement was presented.
The 63-year-old humanitarian worker has lived in the occupied Palestinian territories since the 1980s and Israel applies military law to her, as it does to all other Palestinians in the West Bank.
