Sama Safi. Courtesy of the Safi family.
A Palestinian-American college student with ties to Tampa has been in Israeli custody for more than two months.
But a wide-ranging coalition of groups is asking Secretary of State Marco Rubio to get her released.
Sama Safi is 20 years old and has family in Tampa. Late at night in early June Israeli soldiers took her from her West Bank home.
“They came, they smashed the door, and they detained her, said Lela Farsakh, second cousin to Safi. “It’s the same night that they detained also three other girls, two of which, all of whom are university students at Birzeit University.”
Farsakh lives in Massachusetts and hopes that a letter signed Monday by more than 100 civil rights groups, churches and community groups will convince Secretary of State Rubio to intervene to get Israel to release Safi.
“She suffers from what is called Mediterranean fever,” Farsakh said. “It is a quite debilitating sickness that needs to be regularly monitored, and she needs to take her medication regularly, and she hasn’t, of course, and that’s very concerning because it can lead to brain damage.
Farsakh says her cousin is accused of participating in student groups at her university.
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