Bethlehem - Ma’an - An Israeli military court in Beersheva extended the isolation of PFLP Secretary General and PLO member Ahmad Sa’adat on Thursday, as the Palestinian political leader remains in the Negev prison facility.

According to a group lobbying for his release, the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat, the leader has already spent six months in isolation. A statement noted the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine official refused to recognize the legitimacy of the Israeli court, as he has done since his incarceration.

The campaign said the leader “has already been held in isolation for over six months, in a special solitary confinement unit at Ramon prison where he is confined without access even to the other prisoners in the larger isolation unit, and deprived of basic human rights. His personal books have been confiscated and he is routinely denied access to television, newspapers or any other source of information.”

They noted he has also been denied family and legal visits for the last three months.

Ahmad Sa'adat is serving multiple life sentences. In June he observed a nine-day hunger strike, for which he was sent to solitary confinement. In August he was transferred to the Negev prison facility amid rumors he was set to be released as part of a prisoner swap deal.

In a March 2009 statement the PFLP said the "Israeli prison service keeps transferring Sa'adat from one jail to another, under dire conditions in light of his bad health condition. He has been suffering pains in his back and stomach in Israel's custody as a result of bad conditions in detention."