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10. Conditions
of Detention
In December of 1988,
the UN General Assembly approved a set of principles related to the
protection of all persons who under any form of arrest or detention. These
principles enshrine the rights of those persons and stipulate the
conditions that have to exist for their detention to be legal.
The PA has violated
those principles in numerous ways.
a) Hygiene
There are about 250
political prisoners inside the prisons of the PA who suffer from a lack of
necessary medical care. Many of these prisoners are ill and require
medical attention. Many skin and chest diseases have spread, together with
psychological disorders. This is a natural consequence of bad ventilation
and lighting, filth and poor food.
Examples on the lack
of medical care include:
(i) Delay in the
transfer of the sick detainee to a clinic or hospital. Only rarely are
detainees inspected by doctors when they enter prison. Only in very
serious cases are they taken to see a doctor.
(ii) Doctors do not generally visit detention centers: when they do so it
is only for a few minutes. They normally ask the detainee if he really has
been suffering from a condition.
(iii) There are
rarely prescriptions for medication: prescriptions written by doctors are
never followed. Detainees are only given antibiotics. All detention
centers lack clinics and drugs.
(iv) There is a lack
of specialized doctors: doctors on duty at detention centers are only
available during certain hours and not on all days of the week. There is
no medical register for the detainees and no record of the detainees’
sickness.
(v) There is delay
and hesitation in the administration of the provision of medical
treatment. This is particularly acute in emergency cases. Often sick
detainees are not taken to hospital when this is clearly what is required.
(vi) Often there is
a lack of suitable food for the detainees. At least one person died in
custody in 1999 because of lack of proper food.
(vii) In some cases
there has been a decision not to authorize the carrying out of surgical
operations on detainees. In other cases there have been failures during
easy operations, such as removal of hemorrhoids.
(viii) There is bad
treatment of detainees by doctors and nurses to detainees who collude with
the prison authorities.
(ix) When sick
detainees are transferred to hospitals, they are placed under heavy guard.
(x) In some cases,
doctors wear military clothes which gives rise to a psychological barrier
between the doctor and the patient.
Specific
examples of medical care include:
Ø
Hisham
al-Kahlout was arrested in April 1996 by the Preventive Security Service
in Tal-el-Hawa prison in Gaza. He was taken to al-Shifa Hospital for
treatment because of “torture”. His father brought in a psychiatrist who
recommended that he be taken to a psychiatric clinic, because al-Kahlout
was suffering from convulsion and bouts of unconsciousness. He was
transferred to Abasan police hospital. Later it was discovered that he had
been taken back to al-Saraya prison in Gaza.
Ø
Yahia
Odeh was arrested on 17 November 1999 by the General Intelligence Service.
He was severely beaten with clubs and, naked, was exposed to coldness
because he had tried to write a letter to his relatives complaining about
the bad conditions, the spread of lice and the lack of health care.
Ø
Ghassan al-Addasi was arrested by Force 17. He suffers from trembling in
his hands and from unbalanced activity in the thyroid gland. He was not
allowed to undergo medical checks.
Ø
Iyad
Rifa’ai was arrested in May 1996. He suffered from a psychological illness
and after his family had exerted pressure on the authorities was taken to
Dheisheh psychological clinic for 3 months, after which he was returned to
Jericho prison.
Ø
Khaled
Abu-Maghseeb was arrested in early 1991 by General Intelligence. He
remained in solitary confinement for 45 days, after which he suffered from
severe cramps and pains all over his body. He stated that he had been
taken to a doctor, then to Khan-Yunis hospital where he stayed for 3 days
under guard and then back to prison.
Examples of cases of illness
There are many cases
of serious illness in Palestinian prisons.
Ø
Bassam
Abu Mustafa was arrested in Gaza Central Prison on 1 March 1996. He
suffered from extreme pains in his kidneys and from previous injury
inflicted by Israeli soldiers. He also suffered from stomach pains and a
very bad psychological state of mind. On more than one occasion he tried
to commit suicide.
Ø
Abdel-Majeed Dodeen,
detained in Hebron prison, was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment by the
State Security Court. He suffers from a skin diseases and swelling in his
feet.
Ø
Iyad Rifa’I, from
Bethlehem, was arrested in May 1996. He suffers from mental illness. He
was beaten very severely by 12 prison guards in Dhahria prison.
b) Detention rooms
and ventilation
As a rule, prisoners
are kept in very small rooms (2x2m) and in some cases even smaller, such
as in the cases of Hebron and Dhahria prisons. At times more than one
person is kept in one room. Despite the regular “break” prisoners receive,
the rooms are surrounded with block walls and fencing, with nothing to
protect the detainee from the sun or cold.
Ø
Hassanein Rummaneh was
arrested on 2 April 1994 by the Preventive Security Service :“I was put in
a very small room (2x1m) with a toilet in it. It was unsuitable for
animals. They kept me there on my own for 10 months, and then brought in
another prisoner to share the same space with me”.
Ø
Hazem Irheim from Gaza
Strip was arrested in October 1996: “All five of us were moved into a
small room (3x3m). The room had no toilet. We used to knock on the door
for an hour or so before they came to allow us to go to the toilet. I
stayed in that room for 7 days. They would allow us - 75 prisoners- out
for the “break” in the courtyard (about 80x80m). The yard was surrounded
by high walls and was fenced at the top.”
Ø
Banhan Abu Nusseir,
was detained in Juneid prison: “I was put in an underground cell with no
water or electricity. When they took me to the General Intelligence in
Jericho I was put in a cell for 6 days during a spell of very hot weather.
They would allow me to go to the toilet once or twice every 24 hours with
my head covered with a dirty bag. The “break” would last from one hour to
six hours, depending on the mood of the prison director.”
Ø
Khalil Muhsen was
detained for 11 months in Jericho Central Prison in 1996. He was kept for
40 days under interrogation in a “banana storage warehouse” where they
beat and tortured him.
Ø
Shadi al-Kahlout, was
arrested by the General Intelligence in al-Saraya prison in Gaza: “They
would allow all 10 of us to go on the “break” with our heads covered with
cloth bags made of jeans. A guard called F.S. would beat us with a special
wire about 100-120 centimetres long. It had a trade mark “made in Egypt”
written on it. This guard F.S. told us that his job was to beat us. They
started to interrogate me after 6 months of detention. During all that
time I was kept in a solitary confinement. The guard was the only contact
I had. They allowed one visit lasting for 2-5 minutes during that six
months period. The cell has a heavy metal door, with 2.5x3m space. There
was one mattress in it, but very dirty. I preferred to sleep on the
ground.”
c) Poor food and
clothes and bad hygiene
The quantity and
quality of food provided in most detention centers is very poor. Families
who come to visit are allowed to bring in food with them. In some cases,
prisoners are allowed to go out and buy some food for themselves and other
prisoners.
As for the clothes,
the prison administration does not provide any. Consequently, prisoners’
families bring them to their sons. Those prisoners deprived of the right
to be visited continue to wear the same clothes for days and in some cases
months. Moreover, in some prisons there are no facilities for personal
hygiene.
We should point out
here that this assessment does not include central prisons. The conditions
regarding food and personal cleanliness are normally used as measures to
put pressure on the prisoner. The PHRMG has an affidavit in which a
prisoner said that they gave them barley and cow-uterus as food to eat.
Many prisoners were not also allowed to wash themselves or to go to the
toilet for long periods of time.
(i) Food
Ø
Hazem Irheim, from
Gaza, was arrested in 1995: “they used to give us boiled lentils which
were almost burnt.”
Ø
Khaled Abu-Maghseeb,
was arrested in late 1995 by the General Intelligence: “We had three
meals. An egg in the morning with two pieces of bread, cold rice and beans
for lunch and then an egg or back-eyed beans for dinner.”
Ø
Shadi al-Kahlout, from
Gaza, was arrested in 1996: “We had three meals per day. On occasions the
meat was uncooked. I had to take 5 units of blood when I was released”.
Ø
Riad al-Hallak, from
Gaza, was arrested in 1997 by the Preventive Security Service: “Food was
provided by the family, because food inside the prison was not sufficient
at all. My family used to bring in food for myself and the other prisoners
(9 of them). The administration of the prison would not let in cheese,
claiming that there was cheese available in the cafeteria. It was sold at
very high prices.”
(ii) Cleanliness
Ø
Khaled Abu-Maghseeb
was arrested in 1995: “During my stay in solitary confinement for 25 days,
I wore the same clothes. I had one shower during this period and I had to
dry myself with my only T-shirt.”
Ø
Hani Kaskeen, from
Gaza was arrested 5 times between 1995 and 1997 by different Security
Services: “The living conditions inside the prison were terrible. No human
being could bear them. They allowed us to go to the toilet once every day.
Some days they put us into a room 1x1.6m with a toilet in it that occupies
60x50 cms. We had very poor lighting and ventilation. The mattresses were
very dirty.”
d) Family visits
and contact with the outside world
There are no clear
regulations concerning the provision of television and radio sets. Many
detainees are deprived from receiving information about what happens on
the outside. There is no regular service to and from prisons. Prison
Directors decide what goes in and out.
The party
responsible for allowing visits is not defined by law. Family visits are
normally arranged by a lawyer through the Attorney General. The Security
Services do not normally treat defense lawyers with much respect. There is
no formal rule regulating family visits. Some prisoners may see their
relatives one week after their arrest, while others may not see them at
all before their release.
Ø
Ghassan al-‘Addasi
waqs arrested by Force 17: “I suffered all kinds of torture in prison.
They did not allow my family to visit me even after my health deteriorated
in Jericho prison”.
Ø
Shadi al-Kahlout:
“Family visits were not regular and depended on the mood of the Prison
Director. They were short. They used to call us not by our names but by
our numbers, for example 2/2000. They also prevented my lawyer from
visiting me.”
Ø
Riad al-Hallak: “They
had something astonishing. There were 15 – 30 minute “special visits” for
which we had to pay 10-15 shekels [US $ 2.50 – 4.00]. It goes without
saying that we did not receive a receipt.”
e) Torture
All Palestinian
Security Services practice torture on prisoners, especially during
interrogation in order to obtain confessions. During the year 1999, at
least one person died because of torture inside Palestinian prisons.
Detainees also face humiliating and severe treatment from interrogators
and guards.
After the clashes in
Juneid prison in July 1999, conditions in all Palestinian prisons greatly
deteriorated:
(i) Newspapers and
magazines were not allowed in prisons.
(ii) “The
break” was limited.
(iii) Sport was
forbidden in the courtyard.
(iv) Family visits
were forbidden or greatly reduced.
(v) Prisoners were
separated. Some were put in solitary confinement.
(vi) Prisoners radio
sets were confiscated.
Kinds of Torture
Ø
Shadi al-Kahlout:
“there was a very severe and painful form of torture. They would put a pen
inside the penis after taking off all prisoner’s clothes. Four men would
hold the prisoner tight and one would insert the pen. They would also take
the prisoner into a room with a low ceiling that had a loudspeaker. They
would make the prisoner sit on a small chair with his hands cuffed, eyes
blindfolded and would play very loud music”.
Ø
Khaled Abu Maghseeb,
was detained in Gaza Central Prison: “They used to beat my feet
(bastinado), for some time and then make me stand up and run quickly. Then
they would beat me again. They also made me sit on a small chair for hours
and hours with my hands cuffed and eyes blindfolded. They would not allow
me to get any sleep.”
Ø
Saqer Hanatsheh, from
Ramallah, was arrested on 1 December 1996: “I was taken into an
underground cell. You had to go down 8 stairs to reach it. It was 1x1m,
with a ceiling 2 m in height and with 60 centimetres of water which
reached up to my knee. I was left there almost naked. The guards would
pour some water down the stairs into the cell or directly onto my body.
They did that 7 or 8 times. I was left there until midnight .”
Ø
Hani Kaskeen from
Gaza: “After long interrogations they would bring in a confession and read
it to me. It said “I the undersigned, gave the following confessions
willingly without being subjected to torture.” The confessions were in
fact taken by force. They would add or change to the confessions as and
how they chose. If I stopped at a sentence or phrase they would take me
back to be beaten again. On other occasions, they would list some charges
and confessions and ask us to choose from them. Upon release, with or
without bail, the prisoner would sign a paper stating that he would never
go engage in political activity or incitement against the Authority.”
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