[Pnews] Gag Order Renewed: Ban on Addameer from publishing any information on several detainees under interrogation

[Prisoner News]

http://www.addameer.org/news/gag-order-renewed-ban-addameer-publishing-any-information-several-detainees-under-interrogation 



  Gag Order Renewed: Ban on Addameer from publishing any information on
  several detainees under interrogation

October 11, 2019

The Israeli occupation authorities renewed a gag order on the cases of 
several detainees under interrogation for another month. The renewed gag 
order is until 10 November 2019. Yesterday, 10 October 2019, the 
Magistrate Court in Jerusalem approved the Israeli intelligence unit’s 
petition to renew the gag order for the entire requested period, banning 
the publication of any details regarding the detainees’ cases. The 
hearing was only held with one party (the Israeli intelligence unit) and 
barred the detainees’ legal representatives, denying them from the basic 
right to repeal the gag order. It should be noted that the defense team 
was also excluded from court proceedings in the initial gag order 
hearing on 10 September 2019, which put in place a one-month gag order 
that expired on 10 October 2019. Despite the gag order, Israeli media 
and the Israeli intelligence department have continuously published 
information to the public about the cases. This inconsistent enforcement 
of the gag order, in which Israeli sources have exercised freedom to 
publish, can only be understood as a way to influence public opinion, 
particularly as the detainees have yet to be charged.

Addameer expresses serious concern for the well-being and health of the 
detainees mentioned in the gag order, some of whom have been detained 
since late August, as many have also been banned from counsel with their 
lawyers. For the detainees Addameer has been allowed to visit, we have 
documented severe instances of physical torture and ill-treatment 
throughout their detention and interrogation. Addameer is concerned of 
the widespread torture of all of the detainees under the gag order. 
Furthermore, the ban of lawyer’s visits and counsel for those detainees 
is yet another instance of the systematic violations of the right to a 
fair trial as enshrined under international law.

Addameer emphasizes that the gag order is an attempt to cover up grave 
human rights violations inflicted on Palestinian prisoners by their 
interrogators and also on the prisoner’s family members since they have 
been used as a tool to pressure the prisoners during this period. 
Furthermore, the gag order is a violation of the basic rights of the 
prisoner, their family and their lawyer in having access to information.

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/
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