Lawyers for Justice January 2020 report:
17 cases of ‘political detention’, and 4 of the detainees raise allegations of torture and miss-treatment
A contribution from “Lawyers for Justice” group in monitoring and documenting the Palestinian human rights situation, publishes this third monthly report for January 2020, on the cases it follows legally at the level of political and arbitrary detention and human rights.
The following are the highlights of the group during the month of January 2020 (follow the details of the political arrests at the end of the report):
Lawyers for Justice continued to monitor 17 cases of detention in the West Bank in January for political or trade union backgrounds, or against freedom of opinion and expression.
2 of the political prisoners held during the month of January are university students.
4 of the political detainees raised allegations of torture and miss-treatment during their arrest and / or investigation.
The group’s lawyers and professors followed sixteen court hearings in cases of current and former political detainees or human rights defenders.
Lawyers for Justice issued a set of press releases and urgent appeals for various cases.
Lawyers for Justice has released its official website documenting cases that the group has been following in recent years, ” http://lawyers4justice.ps/ “.
A political and human rights activist, a resident of Hebron, was presented to the Hebron Magistrate Court, where he is being tried on the background of his writing, which is published on the social networking site Facebook. And by a decision of the court, it was decided to give the public prosecutor a final deadline to submit all its evidence, as the session was adjourned to Wednesday 4/3/2020.
The group launched an urgent appeal for the implementation of a judicial decision challenging the elections of the local authority in Al Samoua municipality, in which the group deplored the failure of the official authorities, including the Ministry of Local Government, not to implement the judicial decisions issued by the Electoral Court in Bethlehem, and then the Jerusalem Court of Appeals, the last of which is the Court of Cassation in Decision issued on 5/12/2019 in the case of vetoing No. 445/2019.
Lawyers for Justice followed the session of the Political Detainee Court, Alaa Fahmi Abdel Karim Bashir, where the session was held on 15/1/2020, and she is a prisoner in the occupation prisons, who is serving a sentence of administrative detention. She is being tried before the Qalqilya Magistrate Court on charges of provoking racist prejudices. The session was postponed to 12/2.2020 as the Public Prosecution presented it .
The session of the previous detainee court, Suha Badran Muhammad Dar Jbara, was held on 13/1/2020, and she is a community activist, who has been tried before the Jericho Court of First Instance since the past year. The sixteenth session, which was held on the date mentioned above, ended with a stamp of evidence between the Public Prosecution and giving a deadline to the “Lawyers for Justice “to present you have shown .
Details of the political arrests the group followed in 1/2020:
1- A.B from the residents of Ramallah, a former prisoner who was arrested by the Preventive Security Service on 9/1/2020, and charged with collecting and receiving money from illegal associations, was released on 23/1/2020 after completing the sponsorship procedures that were It was issued in accordance with the decision of the Magistrate’s Court in Ramallah on 22/1/2020 and it is a judicial bail of 3000 dinars.
2- M.D from the residents of Ramallah Governorate, a former prisoner, who was arrested by the Preventive Security Service on December 24, 2019 by summoning him to the Preventive Security headquarters. The prosecution charged him with collecting and receiving funds from illegal associations. He denied the charge before the prosecution, and obtained “Lawyers For justice “on his decision to release him on 12/1/2020 with a cash guarantee of 500 dinars.
3- A.T resident of Tulkarm Governorate, arrested by the Preventive Security Service in Tulkarem on December 14, 2019, arrested on the authority of the Governor of Tulkarm. The “Lawyers for Justice” group lodged an appeal against his unlawful arrest before the Supreme Court of Justice, and a session was held for him on 12/30/2019, the session was postponed to 6/1/2020 to present the defense evidence, and they were released on 14/1/2020.
4- B.A resident of Ramallah Governorate, arrested by the General Intelligence Service on 12/12/2019, and the Public Prosecution charged him with collecting and receiving money from illegal associations, where he informed the group that he was subjected to torture and miss-treatment that he raised before the Public Prosecution, and he informed an agent The prosecutor said, “He was beaten while being interrogated. They were hooked by hands from behind, and they kept me locked.”
It is noteworthy that he is still detained by the General Intelligence Service despite the issuance of a release order against him on 21/1.2020 after he deposited with his family the value of the monetary guarantee set by the court, which are one thousand Jordanian dinars. After that, he will be brought before the Public Prosecution office for possession of a weapon on 23.1.2020.
5- H.R residents of Ramallah Governorate, one of the wounded from the occupation and listed on the list of the wounded of the intifada, was arrested by the General Intelligence Service on December 22, 2019, and the prosecution charged him with collecting and receiving funds from illegal associations, but he told the Public Prosecutor’s office in the presence of “lawyers” For the sake of justice “that his investigation revolves around his political activity, and H.R raised before the Public Prosecutor allegations of torture and miss-treatment, as he said with the ghost, hanging his hands on the wall, and preventing him from showering; where he suffers from a skin disease that requires him to shower daily, and medications are not provided His own family until Monday evening, December 23, after his father was allowed to enter For medications, and in the context of the allegation of miss-treatment, H.R said that he was threatened with placing a wet pouch in his mouth, as he was threatened with more torture, as investigators told him, “The next coming is greatest”, according to his account before the prosecution, and he was released on 5/1/2020.
6- M.N resident of Ramallah, arrested by the General Intelligence Service on 6/1/2020 . Lawyers for Justice pursued the case of the political detainee in front of the Public Prosecution offices in Ramallah, where he was investigated for collecting and receiving money from associations It is an unlawful charge, which is a political charge that the public prosecutor used with respect to directing the political detainees. The effects of the political detainee Muhannad Nasr before the public prosecutor in the presence of a representative of lawyers for justice, lawyer Muhannad Karajeh, allegations of torture, the detainee lived from the beginning of his detention on 5/1/2020, where he is placed suspicious in a small cell measuring 30 * 30 cm, and he was released on 8/1/2020.
7- A.B, a resident of Hebron Governorate, was arrested on January 28, 2020 by the General Intelligence Service, a university student at the Faculty of Law, who celebrated his graduation a week before his arrest. He was brought before the Dura Prosecution on 29 January 2001, charged with money laundering. The prosecutor then decided to keep him in detention for twenty-four hours . On December 30, 2020, he was presented to a Magistrate’s Court, and the judge decided to extend his detention for five days. He was released on 4.2.2020 on a cash guarantee of 500 dinars, which was deposited by the family in the court fund, but the General Intelligence Service did not implement the judicial decision, and he is still in detention.
8- Y. D, from Ramallah governorate, who was arrested on 7/1/2020 by the Preventive Security Service and charged with belonging to illegal associations. He was presented to the Ramallah Magistrate Court to decide on requests to extend his detention submitted by the Public Prosecution in four sessions, and then decided to release him before the expiry of the period approved by the judge on 22.1.2020 with a cash guarantee valued at 250 Jordanian dinars after the group submitted a release request on bail to the judge of the Ramallah Magistrate Court.
It is reported that he is still being tried on a file before the Ramallah Magistrate’s Court on charges of collecting and receiving funds for illegal associations and has reached the stage of presenting the evidence of the Public Prosecution.
9- N.A, from Nablus city, who was arrested on 6/1/2020 by the Preventive Security Service and charged with collecting and receiving funds from illegal associations, and receiving funds from illegal associations in the presence of a representative of the “Lawyers for Justice” group, He extended his detention for 24 hours. The following day was presented to the court to extend his detention until he was released on 20/1/2020 on a personal bail of 2000 dinars and another cash of 500 dinars. It is mentioned that he a liberator, was released from the occupation prisons a month before his arrest by the Preventive Security Service. According to his family’s claims that the conditions of his detention were poor, with a 3-hour search of the house, and the house was broken into without observing the sanctity of housing, and his house was searched again a day after his arrest and his mother’s mobile phone was confiscated, in addition to the failure to produce an arrest warrant and a search warrant.
10- A.N, a resident of Jalazoun, Ramallah District, and arrested on January 22, 20 by the General Intelligence Service in Ramallah, interrogated on January 23, 2020 in the Public Prosecution offices in Ramallah in the presence of a representative of the “Lawyers For justice ” group on charges of collecting and receiving funds from illegal associations which he denied in total and detail. During his interrogation, he raised allegations of torture, saying, “They beat me, and beat me on the leg.” His arrest was extended on the same day by the Ramallah’s Magistrate Court for seven days, then his detention was extended three additional times without being released to date, where he was arrested from In front of his children’s school while he was going to take them, and according to the family’s allegations that his conditions of detention were poor, a convincing group of General Intelligence Services arrested him with a car carrying a yellow plate, and they detained his car that he was still holding for them at this moment .
11. A.A political detainee with the General Intelligence Service from the Ramallah governorate, was arrested from his home on 9/1/2019, where he was arrested from his workplace located in Ramallah at three in the afternoon, and he was charged with collecting and receiving money from associations other than Legitimate, his detention was extended several times by the Magistrate’s Court in Ramallah, and although several requests for release were released by his father, they were all rejected. he is still detained at the date of this report, lawyers for justice were appointed to follow up on the file by his father, as the group offered to represent him legally, but he refused to appoint the group and any other lawyer (there are doubts among his parents and the group subjected to pressure not to appoint a lawyer) and directed His family through the group made an urgent appeal to find out the conditions of his detention.
12- Q.R from the residents of Nablus Governorate, arrested on 7/1/2020 by the Preventive Security Service in Nablus, he was presented to the Public Prosecution on the day following his arrest in the presence of a representative of the “Lawyers for Justice” group, which in turn investigated him on charges of defamation In power, which extended his detention for 24 hours. He was presented to the Magistrate Court the next day to extend his detention for five days, and until the end of the prescribed period i.e. on 13/1/2020 he was released on a personal bail of 1000 dinars. He is an Arabic language teacher, was arrested late at night from inside his house without showing an arrest warrant .
13-N.Y, a resident of Tulkarm, arrested by the Preventive Security Service on 20 January 2001, a university student at the College of Engineering at An-Najah National University in Nablus, who was arrested from in front of the university campus . Where he was presented to the Public Prosecution on 21.1.2020 and his detention was extended 24 hours for the purposes of appointing a lawyer after informing him that the Public Prosecution assigned him the charge of collecting and receiving funds from illegal associations, on the following day, that is on 22.1.2020, he again presented to the Prosecution in the presence of a representative of a group Lawyers for Justice “The prosecutor noted at the time that he was limping his oath and raised allegations of torture, saying that he was” beaten, and rescinded while being investigated this morning at the Preventive Security headquarters in Junaid “and his detention was extended for 24 hours . On January 23, 2020, he was presented to the Nablus Magistrate Court and extended his detention for 4 days. After the period ended, his detention was extended for 5 days. He was released on 30.1.2020 on a personal guarantee of 1,000 dinars.
14-M.S from the Tulkarm governorate, arrested by the Preventive Security Service on 20/1/2020, where a group of “Lawyers for Justice” continued to arrest him with the Preventive Security Authority until he was released the same day, without arresting him before any judicial authority .
15- M.A with residents of Tulkarm Governorate, arrested by the Preventive Security Service on January 22, 2020, al-Ajouli was arrested after summoning him for an interview and the group continued to arrest him until he was released the day after his arrest without presenting him to any judicial authority .
16- H.H a resident of the Bethlehem governorate, arrested by the General Intelligence Service on January 23, 2020, an employee of the Arab Bank, who was arrested while he was in Beit Sahour, who was interrogated on a charge of possession of a weapon by the Public Prosecution in Bethlehem. He was presented to the Bethlehem Magistrate Court for Tibet with a request to extend his detention submitted by the Public Prosecution, for the court to extend his detention for fifteen days ending on 10/2/2020 The group submitted several requests for release on bail, but it was rejected.
17- The detainees A.H, from Hebron Governorate, were arrested by the Preventive Security Service, former prisoners, who were interrogated in the Saraya of Halhul Prosecution on January 26, 2001 on charges of inciting sectarian and sectarian strife, and collecting and receiving money from illegal associations they denied all the charges against them. After that, the Public Prosecutor decided to extend their detention for forty-eight hours.
They were brought before the competent court on 28.1.2020, so the judge decided to extend their detention for a period of one day, as well as the next day.
On 30.1.2020, after the end of the detention periods, the judge of the Halhul Magistrate Court decided to release them in exchange for submitting a personal guarantee for each of them, at a value of five thousand dinars.
Notes and recommendations:
The group expresses its concern about the continuation of political arrests on the background of political, union and student activity in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and calls for a halt to the pursuit of university students against the background of their union activities.
The acquittal cases obtained by a number of detainees during the month of January due to insufficient evidence, and keeping the files of other detainees for the same reason, demonstrate the use of criminal charges by human rights circles with the aim of prosecuting political activists, human rights defenders and prisoners of conscience, where charges are used. Such as “collecting and receiving money”, “possession of weapons”, “inciting sectarian strife”, “raising sectarian strife” and others to cover up the real reason for the arrest.
The group recommends that an investigation be opened into the allegations of torture and miss-treatment raised by a number of detainees, a number of which have been recorded in the public prosecution records, in compliance with Articles 10 and 13 of the Palestinian Basic Law, Articles 5 and 9 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and Articles 1, 4 and 16 of the Convention against Torture And other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, which the State of Palestine has signed, and Articles 7, 9 and 10 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which the State of Palestine has acceded.
The group calls for stopping the detention of the governors, which is considered an administrative detention without a decision or judicial permission, as the Palestinian Basic Law affirmed in Article (11/2) that “it is not permissible to arrest, search, imprison or restrict his freedom with any restriction or prevent him from moving Except by a judicial order in accordance with the provisions of the law, ”and in compliance with Articles 8, 10 and 11 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and in compliance with Articles 9/3 and 14/3 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which the State of Palestine has acceded