Israeli Military Investigation: Torture with "Legal Permit"

Mervat Sadeq-Ramallah

On Saturday evening, al-Dameer's lawyer received a phone call from an investigating officer at the Maskubiyya Center of the Israeli occupation in Jerusalem. The prisoner is under legal cover.

The Shin Bet said that it had obtained a "legal permit" allowing the use of "exceptional" interrogation techniques with Samer Mina al-Arbeed, 44, from Ramallah, and that the prisoner had been severely beaten and tortured and taken to Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem in very serious condition.

The Israeli occupation accuses the Arab prisoner of leading a PFLP cell that planted an explosive device in the Ein Bobin area west of Ramallah in August and detonated it remotely when a number of settlers arrived at the scene, killing a female settler and wounding her father and brother.

Samer al-Arbeed, a former prisoner, was arrested several times in front of his work in Al-Bireh near Ramallah on Wednesday. The Addameer Human Rights Foundation said he was denied access to his lawyer from the first moment of his arrest.

According to the conscience, Samer told the Israeli military judge on Thursday that he felt pain in his chest and could not swallow and continue to vomit, with marks on his neck in particular, "but the occupation ignored his condition and continued to torture him."

At dawn on Sunday, his lawyer was informed of his unconscious arrival at the hospital.

Death in stages
The torture of the prisoner under the legal cover of the Israeli judiciary recalled what the Palestinian prisoners call a 'military investigation', the worst form of investigation that the occupation uses to extract information about the expected operations, as told by former prisoner Lu'ay al-Ashqar from the town of Sidon near Tulkarm.

Al-Ashqar's experience is remembered as one of the worst stories of "military investigation" in recent years, when the occupation wanted to extract recognition from him to send guerrillas to carry out operations against Israeli targets in 2005, paralyzing him.

In a statement to Al-Jazeera Net, Al-Ashqar describes the military investigation as "death in stages and with a prior declaration." Investigators tell the prisoner that he will be at risk of death before his torture begins, in order to force him to confess in advance.

Al-Ashqar was arrested in April 2005 and underwent a medical examination before interviewing a team of interrogators at the al-Jalameh military post near the northern West Bank city of Jenin.

Al-Ashqar's military interrogation lasted three days and was part of a general investigation he was subjected to for two consecutive months.

The investigation began by telling the interrogators that he would be forced to confess or leave a permanent disability, and may be liable to die as well, "but we will try not to die before you confess";

Al-Ashqar calls the first stage "fitness" or "banana", where the captive is tied to a high chair, his hands are tied to his back and his feet are tied with iron handcuffs under the seat, alternating by three interrogators, one of whom pushes his chest firmly backwards until the back of his head reaches his feet from behind. The body becomes suspended like a banana, and repeats this method several times, and each time the prisoner loses consciousness and becomes vomiting constantly.

If the prisoner does not make a confession, the interrogators move to the second stage, the "ghost", where his hands are tied back and attached to the iron curbs in the ceiling of the interrogation room, for repeated and consecutive times and for periods of ten minutes to a quarter of an hour, in which the prisoner also loses consciousness after the bond is attached. With his hands of tensile strength to the top.

In the penultimate stage, investigators hang the prisoner with iron tongs that grip his nose to the ceiling, restraining his feet and hands to the ground, leading to a constant tension of the neck, back, hands and feet. At this stage, the prisoner is exposed to nosebleeds and repeatedly falls unconscious.

At the last stages of the military investigation, the interrogators untie the prisoner, fix him in the middle of the interrogation room, severely beat him by several interrogators, and repeat the stages from the beginning again.

Talking about the stages of the military investigation, Al-Ashqar says that he is a "frequent death", in which he wishes that he will be charged with any charge and any verdict in return for the end of his torture, but he personally refused to confess and was sentenced to 28 months imprisonment as a result of being accused of previously active in the movement. Islamic Jihad.

Torture of the blond in this way led to multiple fractures of the vertebrae of the spine, which paralyzed him for six months. He said he had completely lost the feeling of his lower body, and after 14 years of torture in this way he was still unable to move his left leg.

The Israeli occupation authorities prevented Louay Al-Ashqar, who was subjected to many previous and subsequent arrests, from traveling for treatment outside Palestine. He is also banned from treatment in Israeli hospitals.

Contrary to international law
The Al-Dameer Prisoners' Support and Human Rights Foundation states that violent and unlawful practices against Palestinian prisoners in Israeli interrogation rooms directly contravene international law, including the UN Convention against Torture, which Israel signed in 1991.

While this prohibition is absolute, non-derogable and does not allow for “exceptional circumstances whatsoever,” al-Dameer says many prisoners resort to criminalizing themselves with false confessions under severe pressure and torture, despite their right under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Not to force them to incriminate themselves.

According to the Palestinian Prisoners' Club, 95% of Palestinian prisoners are subjected to physical and psychological torture from the very moment of their arrest. This extends within the investigation in various forms, including all categories of children, girls, young people, the elderly and the sick.

The club documents the martyrdom of 73 Palestinians under torture, most notably Nassar Taqatqa from Bethlehem, who was martyred last July, as well as Jerusalemite prisoner Aziz Oweisat, who was martyred as a result of being severely beaten in Beersheba prison in May 2018.