Methods of Torture and Ill-Treatment: Testimonies and Reports
Many of the methods of torture being used during this Intifada have been common since the PA was established, including:
· shabah, being made to stand or sit up in painful positions for long periods, often hooded or blindfolded and often combined with sleep deprivation;
· falaqa, beating on the soles of the feet;
· beating, punching and kicking the victim, especially around the head and ears, sometimes using a leather-covered stick about one meter long, and sometimes while the victim is hooded or blindfolded;
· suspension by the wrists, with feet barely touching the floor;
· threats of death or injury, including rape.
Palestinian human rights organizations also report that some techniques common in the past are still sometimes used, such as burning with cigarettes and exposure alternately to extremes of hot and cold. Families are often not allowed to visit detainees until signs of torture have faded. However, people who visited Nasr Abu Kbash (see above), told Human Rights Watch that they saw obvious signs of mistreatment, including a swollen face. 101 This was the first time he had been allowed visitors after his arrest by the GIS in November 2000 for alleged collaboration with Israel.
General Tawfiq Tirawi, the head of the General Intelligence Service in the West Bank, acknowledged to Human Rights Watch that Hussam al-‛??Aslini, convicted in January 2001 in Bethlehem (see State Security Court below), had been mistreated by the Criminal Investigation Police (al-bahth al-jina’i) when initially arrested in December 2000. Tirawi denied, however, that the detainee had been mistreated after he had been transferred to the custody of the GIS. Other sources alleged that the torture included being whipped with electrical wire, being forced to stand on sharp objects, and being threatened with death.102
Khaled al-‛??Akkeh was arrested by the PSS in Gaza on February 14, 2001 and convicted by the Gaza State Security Court on August 12, 2001 of helping Israeli forces kill Mas’ud Ayyad on February 13, 2001. Over a period of eighteen days after his arrest al-‛??Akkeh was allegedly subjected to shabah and punched repeatedly in the face with his head hooded. He is said to have lost some vision in his right eye and some of his hearing in his left ear. He was able to receive visitors about twenty to thirty days after his arrest.103 Khaled al-‛??Akkeh was shot by police on September 9, 2001, apparently while trying to escape from custody (see Deaths in Custody below).
Sometimes torture is used to obtain false testimony to strengthen a case against another person. Yusra al-Ramlawi, a 29-year-old woman from Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip, was arrested in June by the GIS. Al-Ramlawi was not accused of being a collaborator herself, but was tortured in an unsuccessful attempt to persuade her to give false evidence that would implicate another person as a collaborator.104 A confidential source told Human Rights Watch al-Ramlawi was two months pregnant at the time of the arrest and had informed her interrogators of this. Nevertheless, she was beaten into unconsciousness, which caused her to miscarry and lose the fetus. Some days later an interrogator threatened to rape her, but stopped when al-Ramlawi screamed. Despite a complaint to other officers, that interrogator was back at work three days later. At the end of June, al-Ramlawi was transferred to the GIS section of al-Saraya prison in Gaza City, where she was allegedly further beaten. The interrogation and mistreatment only stopped when she was transferred to the main part of al-Saraya prison. There she was able to receive visitors but remained in detention without charge or trial as of the beginning of September.105
Torture is often used to extract a confession, but not always successfully. A 37-year-old Palestinian male from Nablus, whose identity is being kept confidential due to fear of possible reprisals, was arrested by the PSS in August 2001.106 During three days of interrogation he was reportedly punched and kicked and made to stand on one leg for many hours in an attempt to make him confess to cooperating with Israeli security. After three days, and failing to obtain a confession, the PSS transferred him to Junayd prison. After about ten days he was released, but was then rearrested almost two weeks later by the PSS. In the PSS section of Junayd prison he was reportedly subjected further to shabah in an attempt to force him to confess.
The Case of F.M., 28-Year-Old Woman107
F.M., a 28-year-old woman, whose identity is known to Human Rights Watch but is being kept confidential due to fear of possible reprisals, was arrested by the General Intelligence Service in June 2001. The aim of her interrogation was to get her to admit to giving M…, a suspected collaborator, the names of Palestinians who were shooting at Israeli forces. Describing her second day of interrogation, F.M. told Human Rights Watch:
He [the interrogator] came and covered my eyes and pulled my hair. “What is your relationship with M…?” I said, “He is the neighbor of a relative.” “You didn’t know he is a collaborator?” He then struck me with both hands on the ears. I couldn’t hear anything [for a while]. He pushed me and I fell to the floor… “Raise your legs.” He brought a chair [and put my legs on them] and started hitting the soles of my feet with [a leather-covered stick used for animal herding].
The interrogator threatened F.M. that her fate would be the same as a girl whose body had been found on the street recently. F.M. continued:
He told me “We are the strongest Palestinian group and we can do whatever we want …” “Excuse me,” said another man behind me, “it seems to me she doesn’t want to talk and I want to open her mouth to make her talk.” He then struck me on the ears again and beat my feet as I sat on a chair. I was then taken from the room and pushed into another room [used as a cell], still blindfolded. Suddenly someone kicked me karate style on the head. I fell unconscious on the floor. When I woke up I had a headache and couldn’t feel anything in my right hand and arm and my leg was numb. The next day both hands were numb and I could not see clearly.
F.M. was taken to a medical clinic where a nurse insisted on keeping her for treatment. This was refused and F.M. was returned to the detention center. Her treatment improved. For the next four weeks the GIS kept promising she would be released. Instead, F.M. was transferred to another detention center108 where she was interrogated for seven days, eight hours a day well into the night, again seeking a confession of a relationship with M… Here she was again subjected to falaqa and beatings, including from a female guard. F.M. explained:
Every time they asked me about M… and I said no, they would beat me… They would make me stand in the corridor outside [other interrogation rooms], just to listen. I could hear the men crying because of the torture.
Three months after being arrested, F.M. was released without charge. She has continuing medical effects of the torture, including constant headaches and difficulty walking.
Deaths in Custody
Five Palestinians are known to have died in police or security force custody since the current Intifada began, at least three in circumstances which suggest that torture may have contributed to the death