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        <h1 id="reader-title">Palestinians speak out about torture in PA
          prison <br>
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        <div id="reader-credits" class="credits">Jacob Burns - <font
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              <p><strong>Jerusalem -</strong> Palestinian journalist
                Sami al-Sai had been ordered released from the custody
                of the Palestinian intelligence services in Tulkarem in
                February, but just as he was about to leave, he was
                rearrested and transferred to Jericho prison.</p>
              <p>There, he underwent 15 days of interrogation and
                torture, he told Al Jazeera.</p>
              <p>"They strung me up from the roof of the cell with a
                rope tied around my arms, which were behind me. There
                was so much pain," he said, noting that he was beaten on
                his feet with a hose during another interrogation
                session. "I couldn't believe the pain … Afterwards, I
                couldn't walk properly; I couldn't reach out my arms."</p>
              <p>Sai was released after paying a fine to suspend a
                three-month sentence for links to the Gaza-based
                Palestinian movement <a
                  href="http://www.aljazeera.com/topics/organisations/hamas.html"
                  target="_self">Hamas</a>.</p>
              <p>His story fits with a pattern of abuse, which
                ex-detainees, their families, lawyers and <a
                  href="http://www.aljazeera.com/topics/categories/human_rights.html"
                  target="_self">human rights</a> organisations say is
                increasingly common in the <a
                  href="http://www.aljazeera.com/topics/subjects/occupied-west-bank.html"
                  target="_self">occupied West Bank</a>, and especially
                Jericho. The prison, they say, is playing a key role in
                a Palestinian security apparatus that has ratcheted up
                its attempts to stifle dissent and imprison political
                opponents.</p>
              "People face torture in many places when they are in [the]
              custody of the Palestinian Authority," said Anas
              Barghouti, a Ramallah-based human rights lawyer. "Many
              people also face torture in Jericho, but what makes it
              different is that it is especially a place for political
              prisoners."
              <p>Barghouthi told Al Jazeera that a new "security
                committee", a joint body of Palestinian intelligence
                agencies set up in 2016 in Jericho, has increased the
                power of the security services because they are working
                together and reporting directly to the president. "It
                was set up to deal with people accused of supporting
                [Mohammed] Dahlan," he said, referring to an <a
href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2017/07/gaza-curse-mohammed-dahlan-170730070104332.html"
                  target="_self">exiled opponent</a> of President
                Mahmoud Abbas, "but it's now being used as a tool in
                political arrests of different kinds."</p>
              <p>A spokesperson for the PA's military prosecution
                confirmed to Al Jazeera that the committee had been set
                up in 2016 and reported to the president.</p>
              <p>A man from <a
href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/08/hebron-living-heart-prison-170813083121084.html"
                  target="_self">Hebron</a>, who spoke to Al Jazeera on
                condition of anonymity, said that he had been held in
                Jericho prison under the security committee for two
                months this summer, accused of having links to Hamas and
                possession of weapons - charges he denies.</p>
              <p>He said it appeared that the security committee wielded
                great power over the judges at his fortnightly detention
                hearings: "The hearings were a joke. It was all for
                nothing; they just re-detained me immediately." He was
                denied access to a lawyer and tortured by being placed
                in a stress position for up to five hours at a time, he
                added, noting that he was released after paying a bail
                of 10,000 shekels ($2,800). </p>
              <p>Human rights groups have <a
href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/08/29/palestine-crackdown-journalists-activists"
                  target="_blank">condemned</a> the increasing number of
                arbitrary detentions carried out by Palestinian security
                forces. <span>Ashraf Abu Hayyeh, a</span> legal adviser
                for Al-Haq, told Al Jazeera that the recent detention of
                Shadi al-Nammoura, a Hamas member from Dura, was
                unprecedented.</p>
              <p><span>Shadi</span> is being held in Jericho prison
                despite a court having ordered his release four times.
                Initially, Palestinian intelligence services had been
                adding new charges after each release order, but since
                August 3 - aside from a brief period when he was held
                under the order of the governor of Nablus - he has been
                held without the addition of any new charges.</p>
              <p>"Perhaps in the past, orders for release have been
                ignored for a day or three. That's illegal, still, but
                this is something new - something that we haven't seen
                before," Hayyeh told Al Jazeera. Letters to the
                authorities regarding the case had gone unanswered, he
                added.</p>
              <p><span>Shadi</span>'s father, Faiz, said his son had
                served more than seven years in Israeli prison before
                being released last November. The PA then arrested him
                from his workplace in the village on May 25.</p>
              <p>"I want to see him again, immediately," Faiz said.</p>
              <p><span>Meanwhile, Noha Halaweh's sitting room in the old
                  city of Nablus is lined with pictures of her husband,
                  Ahmed, who was beaten to death in Jneid prison by
                  Palestinian security forces on August 23 last year.
                  Five of her sons were in Jericho prison on charges
                  related to the violence in Nablus that led to her
                  husband's killing. She says they are innocent and were
                  simply detained because of who their father was.</span></p>
              "It's a punishment for me to be alone in the house," <span>Halaweh</span> told
              Al Jazeera, noting that one of her sons was tortured in
              Jericho - hung from the ceiling of his cell by his arms.
              "He used to be like a flower. When I visited him, I didn't
              recognise him."
              <p>Adnan Damiri, a spokesperson for the Palestinian
                security forces, denied that any torture took place in
                Jericho, telling Al Jazeera: "We do not torture people.
                Jericho prison complies with all legal specifications
                and is one of the best in the world in that regard. We
                are open to human rights organisations visiting us."</p>
              <p>Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, however, say
                they are living through an unprecedented period of
                repression.</p>
              <p>"We've been sliding back in terms of human rights under
                the PA for years," Barghouti said. "Things now are bad,
                and it could get worse. People are scared of the
                security committee more than any of the individual
                services because they're now all working together as
                one."</p>
              <p><span>Source:</span> <span>Al Jazeera</span></p>
              <span id="article-topics"></span></div>
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