שתף
Health Min., Israel Medical Association probing whether physicians failed to
report torture of Palestinian detainee
Sun., March 14, 2010 Adar 28, 5770 [Print Edition Front Page]
By Dan Even
The Health Ministry and the Israel Medical Association are examining claims that doctors at
Laniado Hospital in Netanya and at Kishon Prison violated international law in failing to
report that a Palestinian prisoner had been subjected to torture that resulted in serious
injuries, and in releasing him back to Shin Bet interrogators after he allegedly told them he
was being abused. A petition to the High Court was filed a week ago, requesting that
Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein order a criminal probe into the Shin Bet security service
officer who interrogated the suspect, 21-year-old Jihad Mughrabi, in 2008. Haaretz first
exposed the matter in August 2008, when Mughrabi was transferred by Shin Bet
investigators to Laniado for medical treatment due to internal bleeding and respiratory
difficulties. After only two hours of treatment, however, he was released back into the hands
of the Shin Bet. According to the petition, Mughrabi told doctors he was being tortured while
held in detention. Mughrabi had been detained by Israel Defense Forces troops in April of
that year on suspicion of indirect involvement in a shooting attack that claimed the lives of
two Israeli security guards in Nitzanei Oz, an industrial area just west of the Green Line from
Mughrabi’s hometown of Tul Karm. Shortly thereafter, Mughrabi was transferred to Kishon
Prison near Haifa, where he claims he was subjected to torture and degrading treatment at the
hands of Shin Bet officers. A petition filed to the Prison Service last week by the Public
Committee Against Torture in Israel claims Mughrabi suffered a series of abuses, including
wounds to the head, and was threatened with the incarceration of his family members and the
demolition of their home.
The petition, filed by attorney Nabil Dakwar, stated that the Shin Bet officers offered
Mughrabi alcohol and the services of prostitutes, which he declined. They later left him alone
for the night, it continued, only to return suddenly and begin beating the suspect and striking
him with their personal weapons. Mughrabi fainted, the petition stated, and was later found
to be suffering from massive head wounds and facial lacerations. The Health Ministry is now
examining whether the physicians who treated Mughrabi violated the 1975 Declaration of
Tokyo, adopted by the Israel Medical Association in 2007 − which declares torture to be
“contrary to the laws of humanity” and antithetical to the “higher purpose” of the physician.
In early 2008, then-director of the Health Ministry Avi Yisraeli rejected a request from
Physicians for Human Rights to issue instructions prohibiting doctors from cooperating with
investigators in committing torture. Two weeks after his hospitalization, an indictment was
filed against Mughrabi − not in connection to the murder of the two Israelis, but charging
him with involvement in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to steal the personal weapons of
IDF soldiers for use against them. Mughrabi was held on charges of carrying a concealed
weapon, and released three months later on a plea bargain. He is currently serving a prison
sentence for unlawful entry into Israel and is slated for release in two months. On Tuesday,
Supreme Court Justice Esther Hayut instructed Weinstein to respond to the petition within 30
days. The Shin Bet said in response, “Mughrabi was interrogated according to the law, but he
struck two Shin Betofficers and caused injuries. In gaining control of him the suspect was
lightly hurt and admitted for medical treatment.”
