Israel/OPT
02.03.05
Urgent Interventions
Israel: Arrest and ill-treatment of Mr. Walid Mussa Elsheik
Case ISR 020305
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. Walid Mussa Elsheik, resident of Bethlehem, currently held at Ketziot Detention Camp.
According to the information received, Mr. Elsheik was arrested on 10th December 2004 at the King Hussein (Allenby) Bridge upon his return from Jordan. He was taken to an army camp near Jerico and from there to the Etzion Detention facility where he spent five days before being transferred to the GSS Interrogation Unit at the Russian Compound Detention Center.
An Order Prohibiting Meeting with Counsel valid through January 6, 2005 was imposed against Mr. Elsheik at the time of his arrest. Mr. Elshek’s family appointed Attorney Enas Younis to represent Mr. Elsheik but, because of the above order, Attorney Younis was unable to meet with his client. On 4th January 2005, 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. Elsheik. No answer was received. On 4th January 2005, Attorney Younis filed an urgent petition to the High Court of Justice on behalf of Mr. Elsheik, demanding that the Order Prohibiting Meeting with counsel be lifted and that Mr. Elsheik be allowed to meet with counsel. On 5th January 2005, the above petition was withdrawn after the respondents informed the Court that the Order Prohibiting Meeting with Counsel would not be extended.
On 7th January 2005, Mr. Elsheik met with Attorney Hashim Ma’amoun at the Russian Compound Detention Center. In a sworn affidavit collected by Attorney Ma’amoun, Mr. Elsheik states that he is still being interrogated. He reports that eight interrogators are involved in his interrogation, and that of these two or three are present at each session. Mr. Elsheik states, in addition, that during the interrogation he is forced to sit on a chair with his hands and feet manacled, and that the interrogators swear at him and curse his wife and family. He also alleges that the interrogators threaten to bring his mother and father in for interrogation and to send him to Jordan to be interrogated by the Jordanian security forces. Mr. Elsheik also complains that he has a disc problem and haemorrhoids and that the treatment he is given by the doctor at the detention centre’s clinic does not lessened his pain.
The International Secretariat of OMCT is gravely concerned for the physical and psychological integrity of Mr. Elsheik 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. Mr. Elsheik;
ii. order the immediate release of Mr. Elsheik 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. Elsheik, 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, 2 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. Walid Mussa Elsheik, resident of Bethlehem, currently held at Ketziot Detention Camp.
According to the information received, Mr. Elsheik was arrested on 10th December 2004 at the King Hussein (Allenby) Bridge upon his return from Jordan. He was taken to an army camp near Jerico and from there to the Etzion Detention facility where he spent five days before being transferred to the GSS Interrogation Unit at the Russian Compound Detention Center.
An Order Prohibiting Meeting with Counsel valid through January 6, 2005 was imposed against Mr. Elsheik at the time of his arrest. Mr. Elshek’s family appointed Attorney Enas Younis to represent Mr. Elsheik but, because of the above order, Attorney Younis was unable to meet with his client. On 4th January 2005, 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. Elsheik. No answer was received. On 4th January 2005, Attorney Younis filed an urgent petition to the High Court of Justice on behalf of Mr. Elsheik, demanding that the Order Prohibiting Meeting with counsel be lifted and that Mr. Elsheik be allowed to meet with counsel. On 5th January 2005, the above petition was withdrawn after the respondents informed the Court that the Order Prohibiting Meeting with Counsel would not be extended.
On 7th January 2005, Mr. Elsheik met with Attorney Hashim Ma’amoun at the Russian Compound Detention Center. In a sworn affidavit collected by Attorney Ma’amoun, Mr. Elsheik states that he is still being interrogated. He reports that eight interrogators are involved in his interrogation, and that of these two or three are present at each session. Mr. Elsheik states, in addition, that during the interrogation he is forced to sit on a chair with his hands and feet manacled, and that the interrogators swear at him and curse his wife and family. He also alleges that the interrogators threaten to bring his mother and father in for interrogation and to send him to Jordan to be interrogated by the Jordanian security forces. Mr. Elsheik also complains that he has a disc problem and haemorrhoids and that the treatment he is given by the doctor at the detention centre’s clinic does not lessened his pain.
The International Secretariat of OMCT is gravely concerned for the physical and psychological integrity of Mr. Elsheik 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. Mr. Elsheik;
ii. order the immediate release of Mr. Elsheik 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. Elsheik, 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, 2 March 2005
Kindly inform us of any action undertaken quoting the code of this appeal in your reply.