Lawyers for Justice monthly report, November 2019
About Lawyers for Justice: The idea of a group of lawyers for justice was launched in Palestine in 2011, with the vision of a number of human rights lawyers, after the emergence of the need for a new independent legal body to defend the prisoners of conscience, in light of the widespread repression of the security services, which took place in peaceful demonstrations. Demands an end to the division; in 15/3/2019In 2018, the idea was transformed into the office of Lawyers for Justice, headquartered in Ramallah, to operate throughout the West Bank, with the participation of lawyers from all legal backgrounds, active in the field of human rights, and legally followed hundreds of political arrests, Issues of freedom of opinion and expression, and issues of journalists and human rights defenders. Contributions from the Lawyers for Justice group to monitor and document the Palestinian human rights situation. This monthly report is issued on cases that you follow on political, trade union, or freedom of opinion and expression, cases pursued through the courts, or urgent appeals on human rights cases. . The following are the highlights of the Group during November 2019: In November, Lawyers for Justice followed up on 17 arrests for political, trade union or freedom of expression arrests, 13 of whom were released and 4 continued. During November, four detainees raised allegations of torture and ill-treatment before the Public Prosecution. In November, 7 university students were arrested. The group appeared before the court and prosecutor, the arrested university student (MN), who has been detained since last February, while the release of (THH), who was arrested in October 2019. The group recorded one case of non-enforcement of court decisions to release one detainee during November.(HM) presented the day after his release to the Public Prosecution, which charged him with a new charge and suspended him accordingly, without applying the release order. The group recorded a six-day detention of a university student (MA) pending the governor of Tulkarm without being brought before any judicial authority. The lawyers and professors of the group followed nearly 25 court hearings in trade union cases, freedom of opinion and expression, political detention or human rights defenders; The group obtained the journalist’s innocence (MA) on 27/11/2019, in two cases; for insufficient evidence, he was arrested on 14/10/2019, and was charged in the first case with collecting and receiving funds from illegal associations, where he reported that those the money is his salary for his journalistic work, and in the second case was accused of possessing weapons where he denied the charges. Attorneys for Justice attended the first session of the trial of the late Esraa Gharib, as part of the legal supervision of fair trial guarantees, and issued a statement of its proceedings, calling on the group to continue to proceed with the proceedings in the open manner in which the first hearing took place. Lawyers for Justice expresses concern about allegations of torture and ill-treatment by a number of political detainees, and calls upon the Attorney General to investigate these allegations; in compliance with Palestinian law and international treaties and treaties signed by the State of Palestine, and sometimes rejects unusual measures; which not allow to have a copy of the clients’ files and not allowed the team members to visit their clients especially in the General Intelligence Service in Ramallah.Lawyers for Justice reports that it has issued 19 press releases and an urgent appeal in several of the cases detailed in this report below.* Recommendations at the end of the report. Details of the Group’s work and issues it followed during November 2019: Detention on political or trade union grounds or freedom of opinion and expression: 3/11/2019 University student (NN) resident of Ni’lin / Ramallah; arrested by the General Intelligence Service and presented to the Public Prosecution on 5/11/2019 on charges of collecting and receiving funds from illegal associations and extending his detention for 24 hours. On 6/11/2019, he was presented to the Ramallah Magistrate’s Court and his detention extended for 15 days. He was released before the expiry period. He was interrogated before the General Intelligence Service about his trade union activity, and the charge against him from the Public Prosecution was only The purpose of the extension of his arrest, “according to what was raised in front of the group’s lawyer,” and raised (ai) Allegations of torture and ill-treatment, as reported that the first day of his arrest at the General Intelligence hit the investigator on his face, and hit by a security man on his face. Arrested by the Preventive Security Agency (PA) in Nablus; he was brought before the prosecution and the court on 10/11/2019 and charged with collecting and receiving funds from illegal associations, and his detention was extended for 15 days. He was released from occupation prisons and was arrested more than once by the Palestinian security services in connection with his activities as a cartoonist. He was active during the prisoners’ hunger strike background of his political activity. 7/11/2019 Arrested university student (m.kh) resident of Sa’ir / Hebron; by the General Intelligence Service, the detainee was charged with collecting and receiving money from illegal associations and obtained a release order on 14/11/2019 on bail, but The decision was not implemented, and was again presented to the Public Prosecution for another charge of possession of weapons. He is still detained on this charge. He told the group’s lawyer that his interrogation was due to his political activism inside the university. 12/11/2019 Al-Bireh university student (NT) was arrested by the General Intelligence Service and released after hours of interrogation. After his release, he told the group’s lawyer that his interrogation was about the suspicion that he and his family were political activists in Ramallah City. 12/11/2019 a university student (AH) resident of Ramallah; was arrested by the General Intelligence Service, he was released after hours of investigation, after his release he talked to the group’s lawyer that his interrogation was about suspicion of political activity. 15/11/2019 The arrest of