In the late afternoon hours of Wednesday, 11 February 2026, Mohammed Khatib — coordinator of Samidoun in Europe — was finally released from detention in Heraklion, Crete, after an order was issued by the Administrative Court of the First Instance. He had been detained since his arrest on Saturday, 7 February, when he arrived in Heraklion to speak at an event being organized by the Assembly of Solidarity to the Palestinian People on the Palestinian prisoners, together with liberated prisoner Abdel-Nasser Issa.
His release came after wide-scale support in Greece and across Europe from the movement for justice in Palestine, with statements in France and Catalonia signed by dozens of organizations, protests in Athens and Brussels, visits from local activists and parliamentarians, and the mobilization of progressive and radical lawyers to engage with his case. Mohammed remains banned from Greece and was ordered to “self-deport” to Belgium — where he is also facing serious repression, including an order to withdraw his asylum status, currently under appeal; he was ordered banned from the country on 24 December 2025, only two days after the Greek and Cypriot tripartite summit with the Zionist entity on military, security and economic cooperation.
During his time in detention, he was held in dangerous and unsafe conditions, rife with bedbugs and infectious diseases such as scabies (also common among Palestinian prisoners in Zionist jails denied hygiene supplies and medical care, particularly after Al-Aqsa Flood and during the ongoing escalated genocide). His release came only one day after police had indicated their intention to continue to arbitrarily detain him.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network salutes all of the efforts undertaken by people in Crete, throughout Greece, and internationally to win the release of comrade Mohammed Khatib. It is highly likely that without this attention and mobilization he would still be in detention now. We urge all supporters of Palestine to escalate attention, activity and organizing to free all Palestinian prisoners and prisoners for Palestine in imperialist prisons, including those held in Italy, Germany, France, Belgium, Britain and the United States — as well as, centrally, the over 9,300 suffering, struggling and resisting inside the Zionist dungeons, facing torture, medical abuse, enforced disappearance, and the “execution” plan of Ben-Gvir and the Zionist regime. The liberation of the prisoners is an essential part of the struggle for the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea.
Mohammed Khatib’s statement, issued upon his release, is below:
I am free, after 5 days of imprisonment in what they call “detention centres” but in reality are laboratories of torture and humiliation, where dozens of minors, youth, elders, refugees, migrants and poor Greek people are all facing the same inhumane conditions. I am thankful for all your solidarity and grateful for all your support. We must also remember those who are forgotten behind bars without any rights or justice. The systemic abuse and torture in Greece reminds us of the same methods used by the Zionist entity against the Palestinian people, and these are the same methods used by the colonialist and imperialist powers in this world. I call on everyone to stand in unconditional solidarity with the migrants and refugees in Greece and elsewhere and to intensify the struggle against prisons and detention centres throughout the imperial core.
During my five days of detention, I received strength and power from my people, the Palestinian people, from Mahmoud Farajallah, who passed away as a martyr in the detention centre at Brussels airport several months ago, from the long history of struggle of the Palestinian political prisoners’ movement in the occupation prisons, from our people in Gaza fighting for life and humanity against the genocidal occupier
Once again, the Greek right wing government has shown its real face and its position as a tool for Israel and the so-called United States of America, not only against us as refugees and migrants, but also against the popular masses and working class and poor Greek people who stand in solidarity with Palestine.
It is no coincidence to face this repression on the island of Crete, that is hosting one of the biggest NATO military bases and another Israeli Zionist base, it is not spontaneous to be arrested in a country led by a right-wing government that is selling its land and resources to private Zionist companies that are exploiting the Greek masses who are losing their rights, land, and sovereignty. As the Zionist regime sees the current Greek government as its strategic alliance, we also, as Palestinians and revolutionary forces, should rebuild and connect with all the progressive forces in Greece and our historical and strategic alliance for liberation, justice and sovereignty.
Regardless of my treatment, the injustice and the inhuman conditions of detention, I am honestly very grateful for the experience of being with those who are forgotten and marginalized, and to experience a very little of what they face for months or years. I know that the experience in Greece is not isolated, but that there are Palestinian prisoners and prisoners for Palestine not only in the Zionist dungeons but in the jails of Germany, Italy, Britain and the U.S. and in Belgium’s detention centers, that need all of our support and solidarity.
My final words to those criminals in “Israel” or elsewhere, you can detain us, torture us, assassinate us, but you will never ever manage to stop us from talking, acting and struggling for Free Palestine, for Free Sudan, for Free Congo; against the imperialist assaults on Cuba, Venezuela, and Iran; for the liberation of all oppressed people in the world.
Free all political prisoners!
Free Palestine from the River to the Sea!
Source: Samidoun