OCCUPIED
JERUSALEM, July 25 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The Israeli
secret service Shin Bet continues to torture Palestinians during
interrogation, in defiance of a High Court of Justice September 1999
decision that outlaws torture during interrogations, the Israeli daily
newspaper, Ha’aretz, reported Thursday, July 25.
The
secret service has used "extraordinary interrogation
methods" in 90 cases where it was necessary to extract
information from a prisoner as quickly as possible, the paper said.
But in only a few of those cases was "moderate physical
pressure" applied, with the "extraordinary" measures
usually consisting of denying prisoners sleep.
The
paper said that previously, a single interrogator could question four
or five prisoners at the same time (by going from room to room, with
separate subjects in each one). With that no longer an option, the
Shin Bet wants to recruit new interrogators.
Furthermore, there have been other far-reaching legal changes that
restrict interrogators compared to the relative freedom they had in
the past. These range from such matters as arrest procedures, access
to lawyers, conditions in the holding cells, to the various
interrogator's tricks that they could use in the past.
Meanwhile, because of the intense Israeli army activity in the
territories, and the many arrests being made, the interrogators
"blitz" the interrogations - quick interrogation, over a few
days, to get the vital information they are holding.
"We
don't have the luxury of questioning someone over a period of two
months like we used to," said one source.
One prisoner who has been held for more than two months is Fatah
leader Marwan Barghouti. But the Shin Bet says his interrogation is,
for all intents and purposes, over, the daily added.
According
to his interrogators, "he's a warm, educated man. Very pleasant,
who tells jokes." His questioning was mostly in Hebrew, which he
speaks fluently, but, they said, he told his jokes in Arabic occasions
to meet with high-ranking Israeli officials he knew from his political
activity in the Oslo years, but the Shin Bet refused those requests.
According
to his wife, Fadwa Barghouti , he was tortured for 21 days, his hands
and legs tied and his eyes blindfolded by Israeli interrogators.
Barghouti
met with his wife for an hour and 20 minutes, together with his
lawyer, at the Jerusalem police headquarters on Wednesday, July 17,
2002.
"The
minute I entered the room and saw Marwan, I was shocked," said
Fadwa Barghouti, looking distressed.
"He
said he was tortured for 21 days, that he was forced to sit on a
plastic chair while his hands and legs were tied and sometimes his
eyes were blindfolded," she said. "They prevented him from
sleeping and subjected him to long hours of interrogation."
She
said she was concerned about the health of her husband, who has grown
a beard and lost weight since his imprisonment. "I felt he was in
a bad health situation. He told me that he feels big pains in his back
and neck and hands ... but his spirit was high."
The
Shin Bet is also aware of Palestinian Authority General Intelligence
Services using a polygraph to train their officers and Palestinian
resistance activists how to cope with an Israeli interrogation.
On
at least three occasions, Gaza TV broadcast a program on how to
withstand an Israeli interrogation. Many Palestinian security
officials of all ranks have been through Israeli interrogations during
previous years, and tend not to break in interrogations, it added.
Meanwhile,
an Israeli lieutenant colonel and another reservist have been charged
with torturing a Palestinian suspect's son during a clampdown in the
West Bank in April, the Israeli army said in a statement Wednesday,
July 24.
The
two soldiers are accused of beating and threatening to kill the
youngster while they questioned him about the whereabouts of his
father who appeared on an Israeli wanted list and was suspected of
hiding weapons, the army said.
The
pair are also accused of stripping the youth and threatening to burn
his private parts with a naked flame during the interrogation in the
village of Duha near the West Bank town of Bethlehem, Agence
France-Presse (AFP) reported.
As
well as the alleged physical and sexual abuse, the two reservists are
also charged with "behavior not in conformity" with army
rules.
The
Israeli army often detains the relatives of suspected Palestinians in
a bid to extract information in a practice regularly criticized by
human rights groups
