AYYASH CASE: THE RELENTLESS HUNT FOR GENOCIDE VICTIMS

OliveX spoke with his brother, Mahmoud Ayash, who lost not only his three brothers and parents in the Israeli attack but also three of his children and barely survived himself: rescuers managed to pull him from the rubble. He denies that Mustafa self-harms:

“Of course, we are traumatized as genocide victims, but that doesn’t mean we are mentally ill. Or that we have to be strapped into an isolation cell in the country’s highest-security facility. My brother is not allowed to see his babies and is not allowed to receive any visitors and therefore has no one to hug or offer emotional support, something he desperately needs. With this inhumane treatment, the Netherlands is worsening his mental and physical health. Do they treat genocide victims this barbarically in this country? Is it a crime to be Palestinian? We hold the Dutch authorities responsible for his health.”

Dölle later requested a suspension of Mustafa’s detention, arguing that he could stay with his brother in Arnhem and was willing to report to the police station weekly or daily. However, given the previous request, this was meaningless. The judge therefore rejected it.
In addition, the lawyer could have requested an independent psychological evaluation: the Vught facility, with its inhumanely strict regime, could indeed worsen his “traumas.” The fact that he’s in Vught is a clear repressive government measure, because the journalist has not committed any crime in the Netherlands and is not being charged with any offence.According to the lawyer, he suffered the trauma because he “lost his parents and one brother in the war.” And this was perhaps the most scandalous mistake of the
inexperienced lawyer. Furthermore the words “genocide” or “war crimes” were not mentioned once during the entire trial, which should be considered mitigating circumstances in a fair trial.

5 months ago Austria decided not to prosecute him

It is common knowledge that a war is not exclusively military but also a propaganda war, and influencing public opinion can be a decisive factor in the outcome.
It is also known that Israel, in addition to its military dominance, also controls major international media outlets, and the Palestinians have virtually no media outlets with global reach. Gaza Now was perhaps the only one.
Blackmail and threats against Ayash were commonplace, and after his family home was hit by two rockets in November 2023, Mustafa himself was targeted four months later by Austrian authorities, who, under pressure from Israel, carried out a violent home invasion that left his wife nearly blind. Mustafa was arrested, and his laptops and phones were not only confiscated, but also files deleted, as were Gaza Now’s social media accounts! Mustafa: “They came heavily armed at 7:00 a.m., while my wife was eight months pregnant.” With Mustafa’s outburst, she is the sole parent of their two children, aged 3 and 1.
The deleted files were documents from his complaint, which he intended to file with the International Criminal Court, and Mustafa has thus been prevented from doing so twice. Currently, there are no charges pending with the ICC.
After this violent home invasion, on top of his previous traumas, the Austrian authorities decided not to prosecute. In April of this year, Mustafa was still in Austria, and nothing was wrong. So why is Austria requesting his extradition five months later? This question was also not raised by the defense. The only logical explanation is his intention to prosecute Israel with the International Criminal Court (ICC) and that he wanted to file charges against Austria in the Netherlands.

Locked up for political reasons and no fair trial

Back to the trial. The crux of the matter is whether he can be extradited to Austria. To put it judicially legally: it’s surrender (within EU member states) and not extradition (between the EU and a non-EU state).

The defense and prosecution presented several reasons why Ayash should or should not be surrendered, with Dölle appearing to lose out. She put forward two reasons why Mustafa should not be surrendered. The Palestinian is falsely accused of financing terrorism because he was raising money for his family in Gaza. He is also accused of membership in the armed wing of the terrorist organizations Hamas and Jihad, and it is highly remarkable that one person can be a member of two different organizations. In the European Arrest Warrant, Austria allegedly failed to specify the charges sufficiently. So, what, where, when, and how was he allegedly a member? Dölle also argued that as a resident of Gaza, it’s impossible not to have contact with Hamas, which is the Gaza government. She also said that the contact was in his journalistic capacity.

Mustafa himself offered a different explanation:

“When I came to live in Austria, I had no contact at all with Palestinian groups; I was in conflict with these groups. They even kidnapped me, so how could I have a relationship with them?”

Mustafa Ayash

It is unknown which incident Mustafa was referring to, and no questions were asked about it. It is also incomprehensible that the lawyer didn’t clarify this and didn’t discuss it with Mustafa. Perhaps this situation arose around an incident in 2017. At that time, the Hamas government executed three people accused of murdering a commander, Mazen Faqha, and a Gaza Now! reporter filmed this and shared it on Facebook. The Gazan Ministry of the Interior threatened legal action. Mustafa Ayash said at the time that the reporter in question had gone into hiding and called on the international community to help threatened journalists. The lawyer added that Israel had killed more than 200 journalists since the war but neglected to mention that the Jewish state also accuses anyone and everyone it doesn’t like of “Hamas terrorism”: various UN organizations, including Secretary-General Guterres, media outlets, including Al Jazeera, and even Dutch activists. The NCTV (National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism) reported that Israel is launching disinformation campaigns to influence Dutch political decision-making.

Dölle further stated that Ayash risks degrading treatment in Austria: “He’s in a very bad way, and he is for a reason in the Vught psychiatric centre.” This offended Ayash himself and his family. Mahmoud added, “He’s in Vught for political reasons, and he’s a political prisoner. Mustafa should be among his family, not in an institution.”

Dölle quickly concluded her arguments in less than 10 minutes. The prosecutor, on the other hand, took considerable time to reinforce his arguments: he did believe the charges had been substantiated, listed various case laws, and stated that Mustafa had not applied for asylum, which, incidentally, is not grounds for refusal. Applying for asylum does not necessarily constitute grounds for refusal, but the court can adjourn (postpone) the case until the Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND) makes a decision. If he were granted asylum, he could not, in principle, be surrendered to Austria. Therefore, Mustafa Ayash should apply for asylum as soon as possible. His brother Mahmoud:

“It’s unbelievable that no one gave us this advice. We have two goals: to prevent him from being extradited to Israel, where they torture Palestinians to death, and to secure his release. Given Mustafa’s limitations and the defence’s arguments, I don’t think we had a fair trial.”

Regarding the poor conditions in Austrian prisons, the prosecutor said this only applies to “pre-trial detention centers and not to regular prisons,” citing a report by the CPT, Committee for the Prevention of Torture . However, the report on Austria is critical of both regular prisons and detention centers, and Mustafa could end up in either. Generally, there is poor hygiene due to outdated infrastructure, insufficient access to lawyers and medical care, and even prisons where detainees are held 23 hours a day, which the commission called “totally unacceptable”.

The most striking thing the prosecutor said concerned the fear of extradition: he incorrectly stated that this is not a ground for refusal, while attorney Dölle did not respond to this. However, Article 14, paragraph 4, of the Extradition Act states:

Extradition shall furthermore only be permitted under the general condition that the requested person will not be placed at the disposal of the authorities of a third country for acts committed prior to the time of his extradition, unless prior permission is requested from our minister and obtained.

We asked ChatGPT to summarize this text in plain English:

The Netherlands will extradite someone only if the receiving country promises not to send him to another country—unless the Netherlands (Minister of Justice and Security) gives explicit permission.

For reasons incomprehensible, the defense did not raise this argument. They did, however, respond to the CPT report; they mentioned that psychiatric institutions, where Mustafa supposedly belongs due to his traumas, are understaffed. The report only states that psychiatrists are difficult to recruit. It also states that these institutions are sometimes used as prisons, which is not what patients need. It is also incomprehensible that the lawyer repeatedly stated, directly and indirectly, that Mustafa Ayash belongs in a psychiatric institution, even though there is no underlying investigation, and Ayash and his family deny this. This raises the question of whether everything was properly applied to Mustafa Ayash during the trial.

The fear of extradition also jeopardizes the principle of non-refoulement. Google AI gives this meaning: “

Non-refoulement is a core principle of international law that prohibits countries from returning asylum seekers, refugees, or other persons to a country where they are at risk of persecution, torture, or other serious human rights violations. This prohibition is absolute and applies regardless of the person's migration status, meaning that a country may also not return a person to another country where that person could then be returned to a dangerous country of origin.

Throughout the entire legal case, this term was not mentioned once.

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Mustafa Ayash: “My life is in danger”

At the end, he was allowed to speak for himself, and this proved to be the most powerful part of the trial. Mustafa: “I came to the Netherlands to file a complaint against Austria, and never in a thousand years could I have imagined this would happen to me. Incidentally, I have nothing against Austria; I just want to exercise my rights.”

He also made a poignant revelation about the authorities in that country: “In a restaurant, secret service members offered me Austrian citizenship if I would be an informant.” The courtroom erupted, and such a statement after a month in detention also demonstrates his resilience. The prosecutor also mentioned that he is resisting his treatment, and he is right to resist such inhumane treatment.
Then the courtroom addressed perhaps the most important aspect of his life: his precarious health, which has suffered greatly. It is well known that Mustafa’s health is very poor and that he has little access to medical care. However, when he tried to discuss the details, the presiding judge cut him off. She said she had read it in the pleadings and thus prevented it from being shared with the public. Mustafa was able to say a few sentences about this: “My body is very damaged, and my life is at stake if this continues.” Mustafa began a hunger strike two days after his detention to protest the appalling conditions. But after 10 days, he had to end the hunger strike due to his poor health. What exactly was he protesting, and why wasn’t this discussed in the trial? OliveX has previously written articles about the poor defense of Palestinian activists, here.

THE MEDIA, POLITICAL PARTIES, AND HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS ARE SILENT

You’d think Mustafa’s case would stir up a lot of emotions, and many pro-Palestine or human rights organizations are lobbying vigorously for his release. Remarkably, nothing could be further from the truth. The international media consortium Al Jazeera is represented in the Netherlands by an Arab and a Dutch reporter, Mubasher and Seph Vaassen, respectively. Neither has paid any attention to the Ayyash case. Also, the Dutch union for journalists, NVJ, didn’t release any statement about the matter; they only published a short article about the court case. If we look at the left-wing political party Bij1 and the Muslim party Denk, so-called pro-Palestine political parties, we see that it’s suspiciously quiet, even though we’re in the middle of an election campaign! The newly elected party leader of Bij1, Tofik Dibi, hasn’t mentioned the topic once, even though he likes to be seen at pro-Palestine demonstrations. Denk, on the other hand, submitted written questions to the Minister of Justice and Security, Foort van Oosten. Although this is all they did—not a single social media post, no videos, and no parliamentary questions in the parliament—Denk MP Dogukan Ergin did pose some valid questions.

Questions of Denk MP and a short analyse of OliveX

Do you know if there’s a chance the Palestinian journalist in question could also be extradited to Israel? Unfortanetely he didn’t include Article 14, paragraph 4, of the extradition law.

Would you consider it acceptable for a Palestinian journalist to be extradited to Israel, knowing that Israel has murdered and imprisoned an unprecedented number of journalists since October 7, 2023?
Good question, but he neglects to mention that Israel also routinely tortures Palestinian prisoners and denies the Red Cross access to these prisoners.

Do you agree that the Netherlands should, in principle, not cooperate in the extradition of journalists unless there is irrefutable evidence of a serious crime, given the risk that not only the personal freedom of the individual in question but also press freedom will be restricted?
Good question, just one caveat. Personal freedom of the individual is better described as human rights of the individual.

Do you share the criticism of the Palestinian journalist’s lawyer, who points out that Israel frequently links humanitarian aid to alleged terrorist financing? This, too, is worded too cautiously. It can be called a downright false claim, rather than “alleged financing.”

What do you think of the fact that Palestinian journalists in the West have repeatedly indicated that they have been victims of smear campaigns directed from Israel?

Since October 7, have people also been detained by the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee on suspicion of involvement in international crimes allegedly committed by Israel?

These are generally valid questions, but the fact that he didn’t ask about his health and the poor conditions surrounding his detention is also missing. Vugt’s actions are, of course, completely disproportionate. Perhaps the questions were too difficult, because the minister unfortunately only responded three weeks later, on October 22nd, with a postponement notice: he didn’t yet have all the information to answer the questions and aimed to do so as soon as possible.

What’s next?

As we can see, the Dutch authorities are conducting a full-scale manhunt for genocide victim Ayash. The Public Prosecution Service is being unreasonably harsh, and his own lawyer is clearly inadequate, unless she’s part of the charade. Moreover, there’s no organization or well-known figure standing up for Ayash, the man who endured so much, the man they want to mentally break. It’s ruthless to lose so many loved ones in the genocide, then experience a violent home invasion that blinds his wife, only to be locked up in the highest security prison. And all this simply because you want to help your own people. This is unacceptable, and history will hold those responsible accountable. However, it also means that activists must do more to free Ayash. Besides protests, they can also send emails to influential people and then share them on social media. Tagging these people is helpful in this regard. Consider, for example, Members of Parliament Ergin, Van Baarle, party leader Tofik Dibi, Minister of Justice Van Oosten, the Prime Minister, and the Dutch Association of Journalists (NVJ). International UN and human rights organizations can also be emailed, such as the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment (CPT), OCHA, and Amnesty International can also be emailed.

If the law were implemented, Ayash would not be in Vught. He can be released freely if the Minister or the Public Prosecution Service advocates for this. He can also be released if Austria withdraws the case.
The judge will rule on 11th of November regarding the extradition case.