CAIRO,
Aug 7 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Lawyers from Arab countries,
the United States, India and other nations launched a campaign
Wednesday, August 7, calling on Israel to free thousands of
Palestinians detained illegally, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Two
dozen lawyers meeting in the Egyptian capital since Monday, August 5,
urged "the Israeli government to comply with its obligation under
international law to either charge or release the detainees and to
provide due process to those persons charged."
Those
charged must be given "access to lawyers and a speedy trial in an
appropriate civilian court," said a statement ending meetings
organized by the Brussels-based International Association of
Democratic Lawyers (IADL).
Farouk
Abu Eissa, general secretary of Arab Lawyers Union, said after the
talks ended that the campaign aimed to enlist the support of bar
associations around the world as well as individual lawyers and
others, AFP said.
"That's
what we're after: to exert as much pressure as possible so that these
violations stop and that these detainees and prisoners should be
released," Abu Eissa told AFP.
The
lawyers agreed in their statement "to send an international group
of lawyers to Israel to meet some of the detainees and lawyers who are
working for their defense and also those in authority."
They
also agreed on a project to recruit lawyers from all IADL affiliates
around the world to come to Israel to help the lawyers who will defend
those detained and ensure that "they have a fair trial," it
said.
"We're
all clear that most of the trials that take place in Israel against
the Palestinian prisoners are political trials," Jitendra Sharma,
an Indian who is president of the IADL, told a closing press
conference.
"This
will require a political defense," Sharma added.
The
lawyers shared the view that under the Fourth Geneva Convention, the
inhabitants of the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip are
"protected persons" who are granted special rights as
civilians in a war.
"The
mass arrests of Palestinians represents a violation of the prohibition
on collective punishment as these arrests went beyond the appropriate
measures against individuals suspected of a particular violation of
the law," it said.
They
also noted that "under article 9 of the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights, which Israel has ratified, the populations
of the West Bank and Gaza should be protected from arbitrary arrest or
detention."
"And
anyone who is arrested has the right to be informed, at the time of
arrest, of the reasons for his arrest and the right to be promptly
informed of any charges against him," it said.
The
lawyers, who also came from France, Italy, Pakistan, Argentina and
Brazil, noted that thousands of Palestinians had been arrested since
February this year
