[News] 90% Palestinian detainees tortured

[News at freedomarchives.org]

Report: 90% of Palestinian detainees were Tortured
Saed Bannoura, IMEMC & Agencies - Saturday, 25 June 2005, 15:05

The Palestinian Prisoners Society published Friday a report, saying
that 90% of the Palestinian prisoners were tortured in Israeli
prisons, and that interrogators are using "New and inhuman methods"
against them.

June 26th marks the International Day Against Torture, yet it passes
while the Palestinian people undergo wide-scaled arrests, and
continuous violations in Israeli prisons, and in the Palestinian
territories.

"Army violence against the Palestinian detainees is not new or
unique to the current Intifada.  What is unique though is the
increase in the numbers and forms of abuse.  Torture has exceeded
being limited to severe treatment, physical and psychological
pressure in interrogation cells, to threats of rape to force the
detainees to admit the charges against them or to provide
information about residents", the PPS reported.

Also, the society stated that dozens of child detainees told the
lawyers of the society that soldiers sexually harassed them, and
threatened to rape them if they do not "confess" to the charges
filed against them.

Another sort of abuse and humiliation in Israeli prisons is the
usage of military dogs to attack the detainees.

This method was used in Keryat Arba' detention facility against the
Palestinian detainees, who were attacked by the fierce dogs.

"Torture is now also practiced while the detainees are being
transferred to detention stations after arresting them from their
homes, it includes severe beating, threats, curses, and
degradation", the society stated.

Detainee Ramzi Salah, 28 years old from al-Khader village, near
Bethlehem, was severely beaten and dragged out of his home; soldiers
kept beating him while he was being transferred to a detention
facility; the torture Salah was subjected to led to fracture in his
spine.

Also, detainee Umran Abu Hamdeyeh, 17, from Hebron, was severely
beaten when he was arrested on December 30, 2002, and sustained
internal bleeding which eventually led to his death.

Medical neglect and failing to provide the detainees with the needed
dedications, especially the injured prisoners, made them confess to
the charges filed against them, in order to receive medical
treatment.

Prison authorities are using medical care as a means to blackmail
prisoners to give information.  An example to this method is the
case of the detainee Maher Ali al-Ra'y from Qalqilia, who had to
bargain the interrogators in order to receive medical treatment to
his injured arm.

Human rights organizations and lawyers of the PPS revealed that 90%
of Palestinian prisoners are subjected to methods that constitute
torture and direct harsh violence.

Threats of rape, curses and degradation forms of torture are used
mainly against female detainees.

Detainee Rawya As'ad Mousa, 18, from Tulkarem, said that soldiers
attacked her and pulled her head veil, then verbally abused her,
using offensive and degrading language.

Also, soldiers threatened detainee Zakiyya Oweidah, 48 from
Qalqilia, to kill her children if she does not confess to the
charges against her; she was also denied medication in spite that
the army knows that she is suffering from a blood disease.

In many cases, mothers, wives and sisters were imprisoned and kept
in settlement detention stations for several hours and sometimes for
several days, as a means to pressure wanted family member hand
themselves to the army.

"Israel violated all international laws and conventions that
prohibit torture and other cruel, Inhuman and degrading Treatment or
Punishment, especially the Third Geneva Convention regarding to
Prisoners of War", the PPS reported.

Also, the PPS added that Israel is the only state in the world that
legalized torture and in spite that using torture during
interrogation was outlawed in 1999 by the Israeli High Court of
Justice; the Israeli General Security Service continued suing it
under the pretext of "fighting terrorism".

Israeli interrogators get special permits to use torture methods
form the State's Legal Advisor and the High Court which
provides "legal protection" to their illegal acts.

190 prisoners died in Israeli prisons since 1967 as a result of
torture or medical negligence.  Many released prisoners are still
suffering from physical and psychological problems.

The society appealed that international community and the UN to take
their responsibilities, and ensure legal and human protection to the
Palestinian detainees.

Currently, there are 350 child detainees between the ages of 13 and
18 years old, still imprisoned in Israeli detentions.  Many of them
were exposed to various levels of torture, humiliation and inhumane
treatment.

Child detainees, like other Palestinian prisoners, are led to
detention centers where severe methods of interrogation are used
against them and then put to trial before military courts.

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