Following a petition by the Hotline: After 14 months in detention, Mutasim Ali, one of the leaders of the refugee community in Israel, to be freed

The Ministry of Interior today (Monday July 7) filed their response to a Supreme Court appeal filed by the Hotline for Refugees and Migrants. The appeal challenged the prolonged detention in Holot of Mutasim Ali, a Sudanese citizen from Darfur. The Ministry of Interior stated in the response that according to the directive of the Attorney General, Ali will be immediately released from the Holot facility.

In the appeal, attorneys Asaf Weitzen and Rachel Friedman from the Hotline argue, among other things, that Ali’s asylum request, which was filed in late 2012, has not received a response and that this merits Ali’s release. This argument was effectively accepted by the Attorney General and this is the first time that the Ministry of Interior will release a person from Holot due to delays in examining their asylum claim.

The appeal to the Supreme Court was filed after a long legal battle which started in April last year. Regional courts in Tel Aviv and Beer Sheva rejected three administrative petitions and in two appeals to the Supreme Court the judges avoided ruling on the question at the heart of the matter, kicking the case back to the regional courts.