Brasilia - Saba:
The Brazilian government has demanded the immediate release of activist and Freedom Flotilla Coalition member Thiago Avila, who has been detained by Israeli enemy authorities since Monday after Israeli enemy forces intercepted the humanitarian aid ship "Madeleine" in international waters while en route to the besieged Gaza Strip.
The Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Wednesday that the interception of the ship "constitutes a flagrant violation of international law," stressing that the ship was carrying out a humanitarian mission to deliver urgent aid to civilians in Gaza, according to al-Quds Press.
It indicated that Brazilian embassies in the region were ready to provide consular support, and that their staff had been closely monitoring the case from the moment of the arrest.
Representatives of the Brazilian Embassy in Jaffa (Tel Aviv) traveled to the Givon Detention Center, where Avila and seven other international activists are being held, and accompanied part of the legal proceedings.
According to Adalah, the legal center for human rights in Israel, which represents eight Freedom Flotilla activists, including Avila, the Brazilian activist has been on a hunger strike since 4:00 a.m. on Monday, protesting his arbitrary detention and his refusal to sign a deportation document containing what has been described as an "illegal admission of guilt," despite being forcibly taken from international waters into the occupied territories.
In the same context, Lara Souza, the detained activist's wife, described his detention as "arbitrary political detention," asserting that her husband "refused to sign a deportation document containing a confession to a crime that did not occur: illegal entry into Israel." She noted that he was "abducted in international waters by the Israeli military and then taken to a military facility without the knowledge of the embassy or relevant authorities."
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