On Wednesday (12.01.2011), Professor Essam al-Ashqar who is being held in the custody of the Palestinian Security Forces, was transferred to the Arab specialist hospital in the city of Nablus after experiencing a serious deterioration in his health status. Professor al-Ashqar suffers from life-threatening high blood pressure which according to his family, was exacerbated by him being left in solitary confinement throughout Thursday and without provision for his condition.

Professor al-Ashqar is one of the most eminent Palestinian physicists and a lecturer at the al-Najah National University. The security services and specifically preventative security arrested him from his home yesterday morning after already having arrested and imprisoned his two sons, Anas and Mujahid. The professor himself is currently in hospital but is being held under tight security guard.

Dr al-Ashqar was only released from an Israeli prison two months ago.