A SCOTTISH journalist who was detained in Israel while reporting on a protest against a naval blockade has spoken of his relief at returning home after a week in prison.
Hassan Ghani, of Glasgow, was on a protest ship travelling to Gaza when he was seized by the Israeli navy on November 3, stripped of his equipment and locked in a cell with no information on when he would be released.
The 24-year-old, a reporter with Press TV, claimed the navy blocked the group’s satellite communications and used water cannons on the ship despite being told they would face no resistance. He said: “The soldiers, who were told repeatedly they would face no resistance if they boarded the boats, decided to fire water cannons at us.
“When they boarded that ship, the first thing they did was to snatch the cameras away from the journalists.”
Mr Ghani, his fellow journalists and the activists were detained for trying to break a military blockade and locked away in separate cells for 22 hours a day.
He said: “The worst thing about the whole experience was not knowing how long you’ll be interned.
“The officials were also playing mind games with us. At one point they told us that if we didn’t sign the deportation documents and pay for our own deportation flights, we could be held for up to two months.”
Mr Ghani claimed he was told 30 minutes before his release on November 10 that he was being freed and only believed it when he was on the flight home. He arrived in the UK on Monday.
He added: “It’s wonderful to be home and free.
“I’ve worked in difficult places before and each time I return I’m reminded of how lucky we are in the west in terms of our quality of life.
“What’s affected me the most is the realisation that while I’ve spent just a week as a political prisoner, there are many who have been held for years and are still being held by regimes around the world.
“I can’t even imagine the sort of mental torture they must go through on a daily basis.”
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