A FURTHER custodial sentence for Layan Nasir, a Palestinian Anglican who was detained for eight months by Israeli forces, last 12 months (News, 13 December 2024), could be a “travesty”, 4 bishops have said.
In a letter of support to Ms Nasir, dated 21 August and seen by the Church Times this week, the Bishops of Chelmsford, Gloucester, Norwich, and Southwark, express their distress to listen to that the Ofer Military Court has to date refused a plea deal before her court hearing on 7 September.
“We can only imagine the anxiety and stress that you feel and we wish to reassure you that you just and your loved ones are very much in our thoughts and prayers,” they write.
“It could be a travesty in case your rehabilitation and reintegration back into society is interrupted by an additional custodial sentence on a spurious charge from over 4 years ago. We earnestly pray that a plea deal will be negotiated with the court that avoids such an final result.”
Ms Nasir, 25, is a member of the Anglican community affiliated with St Peter’s, Birzeit, within the Occupied West Bank.
On leaving school, she studied nutrition at Birzeit University. She was first arrested in 2021, aged 21, purportedly for her support of a student-led union (the Democratic Progressive Student Pole), which an Israeli military order had deemed illegal the previous 12 months, claiming that it was related to terrorist organisations.
She was held for 2 months, then released on bond. Neither convicted nor exonerated, she was called recurrently to court hearings for the following two years where decisions regarding her case were repeatedly deferred.
In April last 12 months, she was held for eight months under “administrative detention” — a mechanism that the Israeli authorities use within the occupied West Bank to incarcerate individuals indefinitely for free of charge or trial, on the premise that they’re said to be a security threat (News, 1 May, 28 June 2024).
Ofer Military Court is demanding an eight-month prison sentence in reference to the case from 2021. Despite her lawyer’s attempts to achieve a plea deal involving a high-quality or other conditions that might avoid her imprisonment, the military prosecution is refusing, insisting on her detention.
The Bishops, a few of whom met Ms Nasir on recent visits to the Holy Land, have, they are saying, written to the Israeli Ambassador in London and the British Government to ask that the case is raised with the relevant parties “to make sure that the Military Court makes a good and just decision” that avoids a custodial sentence.
“In our letters, we’ve questioned the veracity of the fees . . . and testified as to your good character. We know you to be a sort and mild individual and a well-respected member of your community.”
A briefing document provided by the Dean of St George’s College, Jerusalem, the Very Revd Canon Richard Sewell, states that conditions inside Israeli prisons “are extremely harsh and re-arresting her could put her life in danger”. She could be the one Christian detainee.
The Bishops conclude their letter by praying that Ms Nasir’s faith can be “a source of strength and luxury through the difficult days ahead. Please be assured that you just will not be alone.” The Church Times understands that the Bishops don’t expect a reply from Ms Nasir.
