הוועד הציבורי נגד עינויים בישראל

On July 27, the High Court of Justice decided to pass its deliberations concerning the joint petition filed by PCATI, Adalah and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) to a wider panel of justices due to the principle issues raised in the framework of the petition. (HCJ case #2028/08).

The petition, filed in March 2008, demands the annulment of a law which severely violates the basic rights of detainees suspected of security offences. The law permits the detention of suspects for 96 hours without judicial oversight (compared to 24 hours, or 48 hours, in cases of other detainees), the possibility of extending the suspects detention in their absence, and without allowing them to defend themselves, and even the withholding of information on whether the detention was extended or shortened. The petitioners claim that the law severely violates the rights of detainees and allow prohibited norms regarding the treatment of detainees to be set in Israeli law.

The “Criminal Procedure (Enforcement Powers – Detention) (Detainee Suspected of Security Offense) (Temporary Order) 2006” was legislated as a temporary order for 18 months but was extended for an additional three years in December 2007. The Ministry of Justice apparently intends to turn it into a permanent law. The petitioners warn that the provisions of this law are an opening to the torture and ill treatment of detainees.

This law, when considered along with other laws that violate the rights of detainees suspected of security offenses, such as those allowing the prevention of meeting with an attorney for 21 days, makes it possible to deny a person's freedom and interrogate him in a GSS facility in compete isolation for three weeks, and only bring him before a judge once during this period of time.

From its onset, the above law proposal, raised the opposition of many of the senior attorneys and legal experts, the Public Defender's Office, Israeli and international human rights organizations, academics, public figures, Knesset members from various parties, the Chairman of the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee and the legal advisors of various Knesset bodies, all of whom expressed their concern at the scope of the violation of human rights included in the law proposal.

The petition was filed by PCATI attorney Eliahu Abram, ACRI attorney Lila Margalit and Adalah attorney Fatmeh El-Ajou.