Palestinian POWs Tortured in Israel
Yahoo News/AFP (France)
Israel rights groups blast 'torture' of Palestinian detainees
by Jean-Luc Renaudie
May 6, 2007

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israeli rights groups in a report published on Sunday condemned ill-treatment of Palestinian detainees, saying that in some cases it amounted to torture and calling for a halt to the practice.

The Israeli justice ministry responded by saying the report was based on a non-representative sample and contained errors and inaccuracies.

The report was issued jointly by B'Tselem and the HaMoked Centre for the Defence of the Individual, after questioning 73 Palestinians from the occupied West Bank who were arrested between July 2005 and January 2006.

Sixty-seven percent of those asked said they were subjected to "beatings, painful binding, swearing, humiliation and denial of basic needs" from the moment of their arrest to their transfer to the Shin Beth internal security service for interrogation, the report said.

Such measures "are defined by international law as ill-treatment and may reach the level of torture," it said.

Suspects deemed to be "ticking bombs" -- those thought to possess information that could prevent attacks -- were subjected to the harshest treatment, the report added.

This included sleep deprivation for more than 24 hours, beatings, sudden tilting of the head sideways or backwards, bending the detainee's back in an arch when he was seated on a backless chair and forcing detainees to crouch on tiptoes accompanied by shoving.

"These measures are defined as torture under international law. Their use is not negligible, even if not routine," it said.

"Although it is not a representative sample, it does provide a valid indication of the frequency of the reported phenomena," the report said.

The rights groups called on Shin Beth to immediately stop using interrogation techniques "that injure the dignity or physical integrity" of detainees, and urged that legislation be enacted to ban them.

It also urged independent investigations against complaints filed against the security agency and called for interrogations to be video-taped.

The justice ministry said in a statement that the report was "based on a non-representative sample that was apparently chosen in an ill manner with a view to altering reality."

"The report contains numerous errors, unfounded accusations and inaccuracies," it said.

"The role of the Shin Beth is to ensure state security and to prevent illegal activities. To achieve these goals, it interrogates people suspected of terrorist activities. The lives of many Israelis have been saved thanks to the information obtained as a result."

More than 11,000 Palestinians are currently detained in Israel, more than 9,000 of them on charges of endangering state security, according to figures from the Israeli army and prison service.

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