Israel/OPT
31.03.05
Urgent Interventions
Israel: Arrest and ill-treatment of Mr. Salameh Ibrahim Pakia
Case ISR 310305
Arrest / Incommunicado detention / Ill-treatment / Torture
The International Secretariat of OMCT requests your URGENT intervention in the following situation in Israel.
Brief description of the situation
The International Secretariat of OMCT has been informed by the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI), a member of the OMCT network, of the arrest, incommunicado detention and ill-treatment of Mr. Salameh Ibrahim Pakia, Hebron, currently held at the Russian Compound Detention Centre in Jerusalem.
According to the information received, Mr. Pakia was arrested at his home at approximately 2.00 am on 18 December, and brought to the GSS Interrogation Unit at the Russian Compound Detention Centre.
An Order Prohibiting Meeting with Counsel valid through 9 January 2005 was imposed against Mr. Pakia immediately upon his arrest. Mr. Pakia’s family appointed Attorney Enas Younis to represent Mr. Pakia, but because of the above order, Attorney Younis was unable to meet with her client. On 3 January, Attorney Younis submitted a pre-petition letter to the State Attorney’s office asking that the Order Prohibiting Meeting with Counsel be immediately lifted and inquiring whether any physical or psychological pressure was being used against Mr. Pakia. No answer was received.
Representing PCATI, on 4 January, Attorney Younis filed an urgent petition to the High Court of Justice on behalf of Mr. Pakia demanding that the Order Prohibiting Meeting with Counsel be lifted and that Mr. Pakia be allowed to meet with counsel. The above petition was withdrawn, and four additional orders were subsequently imposed against Mr. Pakia, the latest being issued on 17 January. On that date, Attorney Younis filed a second urgent petition to the High Court of Justice on behalf of Salameh Ibrahim Pakia, demanding that the Order Prohibiting Meeting with Counsel be lifted and Mr. Pakia be allowed to meet with counsel. The second petition was withdrawn on 18 January since the State Attorney’s Office informed the Court on the 17th that Mr. Pakia may meet with counsel the following day.
According to the information received, in a sworn affidavit given by Mr. Pakia to Attorney Husam Younis on 9 February 2005, Mr. Pakia has stated that when he arrived at the Russian Compound Detention Centre he was strip searched, examined at the detention centre’s clinic and immediately taken for interrogation. Mr. Pakia has claimed that he was interrogated for 12 hours a day, without a break, for 20 days and that on the holiday Id El Adha he was interrogated for 48 consecutive hours with only short breaks for meals and rest.
During interrogation, Mr. Pakia was reportedly seated on a wooden chair with his hands tied from behind, which caused him pain in his back and buttocks. He has also complained to have been humiliated during interrogation, and that his interrogators constantly shouted and insulted him. He has added that his interrogators prevented him from eating or going to the toilet during the first day of his interrogation and that he was threatened that if he did not confess his house would be listed for demolition.
Furthermore, Mr. Pakia has claimed that although he was allowed to sleep at night, the light in his cell was left on, which made sleep difficult. Three interrogators were reportedly involved in each interrogation session, one of whom was always present, called Abu Wadi. Mr. Pakia has also stated that he suffered from leg pain before his arrest, and that he was given medicine for this by a detention centre doctor, but that the medicine did not help at all.
The International Secretariat of OMCT is gravely concerned for the physical and psychological integrity of Mr. Pakia and by the use of incommunicado detention by Israeli authorities, through the issuing of Orders Prohibiting Meeting with Counsel, a violation of the detainee’s rights under international law, as well as the ill-treatment and torture which the detainee has been subjected to during this period.
Action requested
Please write to the authorities in Israel urging them to:
i. take all necessary measures to guarantee the physical and psychological integrity of Mr. Pakia;
ii. order the immediate release of Mr. Pakia in the absence of valid legal charges, and if such charges exist, to ensure that he is given a prompt and fair trial, in which his procedural rights are guaranteed at all times;
iii. order a thorough and impartial investigation into the circumstances of these events, notably the allegations of ill-treatment and torture of Mr. Pakia, in order to identify those responsible, bring them to trial and apply the penal and/or administrative sanctions as provided by law;
iv. guarantee the respect of human rights and the fundamental freedoms throughout the country and the Occupied Territories in accordance with international human rights standards.
Addresses
Please also write to the embassies of Israel in your respective country.
Geneva, 31 March 2005
Kindly inform us of any action undertaken quoting the code of this appeal in your reply.
Arrest / Incommunicado detention / Ill-treatment / Torture
The International Secretariat of OMCT requests your URGENT intervention in the following situation in Israel.
Brief description of the situation
The International Secretariat of OMCT has been informed by the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI), a member of the OMCT network, of the arrest, incommunicado detention and ill-treatment of Mr. Salameh Ibrahim Pakia, Hebron, currently held at the Russian Compound Detention Centre in Jerusalem.
According to the information received, Mr. Pakia was arrested at his home at approximately 2.00 am on 18 December, and brought to the GSS Interrogation Unit at the Russian Compound Detention Centre.
An Order Prohibiting Meeting with Counsel valid through 9 January 2005 was imposed against Mr. Pakia immediately upon his arrest. Mr. Pakia’s family appointed Attorney Enas Younis to represent Mr. Pakia, but because of the above order, Attorney Younis was unable to meet with her client. On 3 January, Attorney Younis submitted a pre-petition letter to the State Attorney’s office asking that the Order Prohibiting Meeting with Counsel be immediately lifted and inquiring whether any physical or psychological pressure was being used against Mr. Pakia. No answer was received.
Representing PCATI, on 4 January, Attorney Younis filed an urgent petition to the High Court of Justice on behalf of Mr. Pakia demanding that the Order Prohibiting Meeting with Counsel be lifted and that Mr. Pakia be allowed to meet with counsel. The above petition was withdrawn, and four additional orders were subsequently imposed against Mr. Pakia, the latest being issued on 17 January. On that date, Attorney Younis filed a second urgent petition to the High Court of Justice on behalf of Salameh Ibrahim Pakia, demanding that the Order Prohibiting Meeting with Counsel be lifted and Mr. Pakia be allowed to meet with counsel. The second petition was withdrawn on 18 January since the State Attorney’s Office informed the Court on the 17th that Mr. Pakia may meet with counsel the following day.
According to the information received, in a sworn affidavit given by Mr. Pakia to Attorney Husam Younis on 9 February 2005, Mr. Pakia has stated that when he arrived at the Russian Compound Detention Centre he was strip searched, examined at the detention centre’s clinic and immediately taken for interrogation. Mr. Pakia has claimed that he was interrogated for 12 hours a day, without a break, for 20 days and that on the holiday Id El Adha he was interrogated for 48 consecutive hours with only short breaks for meals and rest.
During interrogation, Mr. Pakia was reportedly seated on a wooden chair with his hands tied from behind, which caused him pain in his back and buttocks. He has also complained to have been humiliated during interrogation, and that his interrogators constantly shouted and insulted him. He has added that his interrogators prevented him from eating or going to the toilet during the first day of his interrogation and that he was threatened that if he did not confess his house would be listed for demolition.
Furthermore, Mr. Pakia has claimed that although he was allowed to sleep at night, the light in his cell was left on, which made sleep difficult. Three interrogators were reportedly involved in each interrogation session, one of whom was always present, called Abu Wadi. Mr. Pakia has also stated that he suffered from leg pain before his arrest, and that he was given medicine for this by a detention centre doctor, but that the medicine did not help at all.
The International Secretariat of OMCT is gravely concerned for the physical and psychological integrity of Mr. Pakia and by the use of incommunicado detention by Israeli authorities, through the issuing of Orders Prohibiting Meeting with Counsel, a violation of the detainee’s rights under international law, as well as the ill-treatment and torture which the detainee has been subjected to during this period.
Action requested
Please write to the authorities in Israel urging them to:
i. take all necessary measures to guarantee the physical and psychological integrity of Mr. Pakia;
ii. order the immediate release of Mr. Pakia in the absence of valid legal charges, and if such charges exist, to ensure that he is given a prompt and fair trial, in which his procedural rights are guaranteed at all times;
iii. order a thorough and impartial investigation into the circumstances of these events, notably the allegations of ill-treatment and torture of Mr. Pakia, in order to identify those responsible, bring them to trial and apply the penal and/or administrative sanctions as provided by law;
iv. guarantee the respect of human rights and the fundamental freedoms throughout the country and the Occupied Territories in accordance with international human rights standards.
Addresses
- Mr. Ariel Sharon, Prime Minister, Office of the Prime Minister, 3 Kaplan Street, PO Box 187, Kiryat Ben-Gurion, Jerusalem 91919, Israel. Fax: + 972 2 651 2631, E-mail: rohm@pmo.gov.il, pm_eng@pmo.gov.il
- Mr. Yosef Lapid, Minister of Justice, 29 Salah Eddin Street, Jerusalem 1010, Israel. Fax : + 972 2 628 8618, E-mail: sar@justice.gov.il
- Ambassador Yaakov Levy, Av. de la Paix 1-3, CH-1202, Genève, Suisse, e-mail: mission-israel@geneva.mfa.gov.il, mission.israel@gva.mfa.gov.il, fax: +4122 716 05 55
Please also write to the embassies of Israel in your respective country.
Geneva, 31 March 2005
Kindly inform us of any action undertaken quoting the code of this appeal in your reply.