Torture: A State's Tyranny  

Torture During the First Six Months of 1998 in Palestinian National Authority Detention Centers and Prisons  

Part Five:

Conclusions

Detainee's rights:

The PNA needs to put an end to arbitrary arrests of Palestinian people. Clear instructions on the arrest procedures in accordance with international principles of the law, need to be released. Furthermore, all Palestinian security forces need to be informed about these instructions. In all cases, these instructions need to include rules to execute arrests according to the law; the suspect has to be informed of the charges pressed against him upon his arrest; the suspect needs to be presented before a judge as soon as possible and be assigned an attorney to represent him; and finally, the suspect needs to be provided with all necessary medical care, and allowed family visits.

Preventing torture:

Restrictions and means need to be placed to stop the use of torture while suspects are being interrogated. These restrictions need to include banning torture, banning the use of secretive detention centers where arrest and interrogation take place, forming a neutral committee to investigate torture cases, banning the use of confessions taken under torture in court rooms, presenting those who practice torture before a court of law, and providing social help to rehabilitate torture victims. The application of the law needs to be clarified by the PNA to all security forces. The practice of torture is forbidden in any case, and those who use it need to be punished according to the law.

Monitoring detention centers:

Detention and interrogation centers, as well as jails belonging to the security forces need to be opened for regular monitoring without prior notification by the monitoring forces, such as local human rights organizations. Interrogation sessions need to be monitored, and the health situation of detainees needs to be followed up on a regular basis.

Sentencing human rights violators:

Members from the security forces and others who violate human rights need to be presented before a court of law, especially with the cases provided in this report. Interrogation results and any legal measure need to be published.

The PNA needs to support all these instructions and apply them immediately.

Mr. Freih Abu Midein

The Minister of Justice

The Ministry of Justice 

Gaza - Palestine

                                                                                                Jerusalem, 16 September, 1998

Greetings,

Subject: PHRMG report on the practice of torture in Palestinian Prisons  

The PHRMG conducted a field research and collected testimonies from Palestinian detainees who were exposed to torture, mental pressure, ill treatment, and humiliation, during their interrogation by the various security forces. This situation concerns the PHRMG with regards to the PNA's absent preservation of Palestinian human rights.

Attached is a final draft copy of the report. We hope to obtain your comments and response on it.

Thanking you for your cooperation.

Best Regards,

Bassem Eid

Director, PHRMG

Note: the report was received by the office of the Minister of Justice. The Minister's secretary Zahida Bsiso received it on 19/9/98. Until the release of this report, the PHRMG has not received a reply from the Ministry of Justice.

Testimony Under Oath

I, the undersigned, Ramez Ismai'il Taha al-Halabi from Gaza, ID number 900299637, swear to tell the truth on the following, or I shall be subjected to punishment 

1.      On 2/4/97, I was arrested following the bombings committed by Anwar al-Shabrawi and Abdullah al-Madhun in Gaza, Rafah main road.

2.      As soon as I entered Gaza Central Prison - the GI department - I was interrogated regarding the two bombers, and I was accused of being responsible in the military forces of the Islamic Jihad. I am only in charge of student activism at the Islamic university.

3.      When I denied being responsible of the bombings and the two bombers, I was tortured in the following ways:

1. Severe beating with electric cables to a point where I was unable to walk until two prison guards helped me.
2. Two ribs from my rib cage were broken on the 17^th day
3. Interrogators plucked out five nails from my fingers and toes. The scars are there until this day.
4. My mouth and nose were muffled, my eyes were blindfolded, five bags were placed over my head, and my head was placed in a large water container. I almost suffocated and lost consciousness four times.
5. I was stripped naked, and some interrogators placed pressure on my testicles and beat them, and tried to put an electric cable up my anus. All this took place while I was tied up.
6. Shabeh was practiced on me. My hands were tied to my back, and I was hung from the ceiling, and my tips touched the floor.

4.      They called for my brother Ibrahim (older than myself) to ask him about my friends and other information. He was arrested for two weeks. Brigadier Faisal al-Habbash promised to release him because there were no charges pressed against him.

5.      They interrogated my brother on the same bombing operation, and accused him of executing it in the name of the Islamic Jihad. That took place after they had received information that my brother was in charge of union work for the Islamic Jihad.

6.      All of a sudden, the interrogation with my brother about him being a member in the Islamic Jihad turned into him being a collaborator for Israel. GI interrogators placed severe pressure against him and I witnessed all that. He suffered in prison from problems in his brain. They placed a great deal of pressure on his head, and he was screaming from the severity of torture practiced on him by the interrogators. He was physically tortured for ten days straight. I saw him in the Shabeh position at the slaughterhouse. In the end, presidential secretary Al-Tayyeb Abdul Rahim, together with the General manager of the Ministry of Information Mr. Hasan al-Kashef, arrived. They asked my brother to appear on TV and confess of being a collaborator for the Israelis. Abdul Rahim promised my brother that he would not be detained for more than six months until people forget about what happened.

This is what happened to my brother and I. I witnessed all of it and swear to God that it is the truth.

21/6/1998

Signed by the Judge and sealed by the Ministry of Justice on 21/6/1998 

List of Persons who Died in Palestinian Prisons