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UPDATE:
On Monday 3.9.2001,
PCATI and PHRMG were informed that Israeli Military Judge
David Yahav (res.) rejected the appeal submitted by Abed
al-Ahmar's counsels against his six-month administrative
detention order, relying as always solely on secret evidence
submitted by the Israeli General Security Services (GSS).
The hearing was held on Wednesday 22.8.01 at Megiddo
detention center, and representatives of the PHRMG and other
human rights organizations were able to witness part of the
proceedings.
Military Judge Yahav,
a judge on reserve duty who is a lawyer in Israel, dismissed
all the substantial and public evidence submitted by his
lawyers of Mr. Al-Ahmar's commitment to principles of human
rights and peaceful coexistence between Palestinians and
Israelis. Hiding behind the inadmissible wall of secret
evidence, Judge Yahav stated in his decision that Mr.
Al-Ahmar was a "charlatan" who succeeded to
deceive his Israeli and international supporters with his
charisma and pleasant demeanor.
PCATI and PHRMG
strongly protest this decision and personal attack on Mr.
Al-Ahmar, by which Military Judge Yahav agreed to cover up
the absence of any incriminating evidence against Mr.
Al-Ahmar. PHRMG and PCATI also protest the distribution by
the Israeli Ministry of Justice of a letter, sent to many
people abroad who protested on behalf of Mr. Al-Ahmar, which
contains defamatory accusations against Mr. Al-Ahmar. Such
accusations had never been revealed to Mr. Al-Ahmar's
lawyers before the issuance of the letter, and if they had
been supported by even a shred of evidence, Mr. Al-Ahmar
should have long been brought in front of a court.
"Talk about irony," writes Mumia Abu-Jamal from
his US jail. "Abed al-Ahmar works for the Palestinian
Human Rights Monitoring Group (PHRMG) as an investigator.
This is his area of expertise. Today, in Israeli prisons, he
is learning about human rights firsthand."
Please continue
sending letters of protest, to prevent a new administrative
detention order to be imposed on Mr. Al-Ahmar at the
expiration of the current one, on 22.11.2001. Military
Judges David Yahav and Adrian Agasi (who initially
sanctioned the order) must reminded that judges are also
personally accountable for their complicity in perpetuating
human rights violations such as arbitrary detention and
denying the right to fair trial.
BACKGROUND
INFORMATION:
Mr. Abed Rahman
al-Ahmar is a well-known Palestinian human rights activist,
who works as a field researcher with the Palestinian Human
Rights Monitoring Group (PHRMG). Mr. Al-Ahmar was arrested
and beaten by Israeli security forces on 24.5.2001 and has
since been held in detention, first at Gush Etzion military
detention center, and since Wednesday 30.5.2001 at the
Russian Compound detention center in Jerusalem.
On Wednesday,
30.5.2001, Mr. al-Ahmar's detention was extended by 20 days,
without the presence or the knowledge of Attorney Yossi
Schwartz, who represented Mr. al-Ahmar and had just visited
him on 27.5.2001. Attorney Schwartz filed an appeal of this
extension on Monday, 4.6.2001, but the appeal was rejected
the following day (5.6.2001) by the Military Court of
Appeals in Beit El, West Bank.
On 10.6.2001, Attorney
Allegra Pacheco discovered that Mr. Al-Ahmar had been
tortured, shackled in tight handcuffs to a slanting chair
for the entire day. This torture method, known as
"shabeh," was outlawed by the Israeli Supreme
Court on 6 September 1999. The next day, 11.6.2001, Attorney
Pacheco, in the name of Mr. Al-Ahmar, the Public Committee
Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) and the Palestinian Human
Rights Monitoring Group (PHRMG), filed a petition with the
High Court against the torture, but the petition was
rejected in a hearing held on 12.6.2001. Although Mr.
Al-Ahmar vomited in Court and showed the red marks on his
wrists to the justices, the court ruled that it could find
no evidence of torture.
On 18.6.2001, the
initial 20-days interrogation period of Mr. Al-Ahmar came to
an end and the judge extended his detention for another 15
days. The lawyers immediately appealed this decision and the
appeal was heard by the Military Court of Appeals in Beit El
on 21.6.2001. The Military Judge initially decided that the
GSS did not provide him with sufficient material to justify
a new extension of Mr. Al-Ahmar's detention, but nonetheless
decided to grant the GSS more time. Somehow the GSS managed
between the evening of Thursday 21.6.2001 and Friday morning
22.6.2001 to come up with sufficient evidence and present it
to the Court. The appeal was rejected that same day, Friday
22.6.2001.
On Monday night
2.7.2001, as the latest extension of Mr. Al-Ahmar's
detention came to an end, the Military Commander ordered a 6
months administrative detention, thereby saving the GSS from
having to present new evidence against him. Mr. Al-Ahmar was
immediately transferred to Megiddo Detention Center. On
Sunday 15.7.2001, Military Judge Adrian Agasi upheld the
administrative detention order in a hearing held at Megiddo
military prison.
Mr. al-Ahmar was
imprisoned several times in the past, most recently for two
and a half years in administrative detention until his
release in 1998. He was tortured repeatedly by the GSS while
detained at the Russian Compound and, as a result, still
suffers from a hiatal hernia and severe back problems. He
sued the GSS for damages but the decision is still pending. He
has now been adopted as a Prisoner of Conscience by Amnesty
International.
For further details
please contact:
PCATI - Hannah
Friedman
Tel. 02-5630073,
056-556442
PHRMG - Bassem Eid: Tel. 02-5823372, 050-258594
Write to Abed to express your support:
Abed al-Rahman al-Ahmar
Administrative Detainee
Megiddo Prison
Military Mail 02287
Protest Judges Agasi
and Yahav's Decision:
Chief Military
Attorney
Brigadier Menahem Finkelstein
Lishkat HaPatzar
HaKirya, Tel Aviv
Fax: +972 -3- 569-2094
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
Office of the Prime Minister
3 Kaplan Street, PO Box 187
Kiryat Ben-Gurion
Jerusalem 91919
Fax: + 972 2 651 2631
Meir Shetrit
Minister of Justice
Ministry of Justice
29 Salah al-Din Street
Jerusalem 91010
Fax: + 972 2 628 8618
Kindly send copies of
emails, faxes, or other correspondence regarding Mr.
al-Ahmar's detention to:
PHRMG <admin@phrmg.org> Fax 02-5823385
PCATI <pcati@netvision.net.il> Fax 02-566 5477
ALL THE COPIES OF YOUR LETTERS WILL BE KEPT AND GIVEN TO MR.
AL-AHMAR AFTER HIS RELEASE!
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