Report accuses Israel of "widespread torture" against militants

May 30, 2007, 12:27 GMT

Jerusalem - An Israeli report published Wednesday strongly criticized interrogation methods used by the Shin Bet internal security organization against suspected Palestinian militants, saying they constituted 'torture.'

The report said such methods were used on a routine basis against any detainee deemed a 'ticking bomb.'

A 1999 Israeli Supreme Court ruling allowed the Shin Bet to use methods of pressure against suspects if believed necessary to obtain crucial information about pending suicide bombings, based on the legal argument of 'the necessity of self-defence,' said the report by the non-governmental Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI).

But nine testimonies of Palestinians interrogated by the Shin Bet and published in the report illustrate a 'widespread practice' in which 'any Palestinian detainee might find himself tortured during interrogation under the pretext that he is a 'ticking bomb',' said a statement issued by the group.

The methods used by the Shin Bet include lengthy solitary confinement, slapping, shaking, hooding, shackling, sleep deprivation, exposure to cold and head, cursing, threatening, psychological humiliation and denial of clean clothing, says the PCATI.

One of the testimonies in the report, by Hamas suspect Bahjat Yamen, 30, describes how, after being arrested in the West Bank city of Qalqilya two years ago, he was interrogated uninterruptedly for more than two days and nights, with the exception of two breaks of under three hours.

His interrogators, he said, beat him in the stomach while he was shackled to a chair, pressed a handcuff just below his elbow until his arm swelled up and bled, and had him squat down while pushed him backwards, causing tension and 'excruciating pain' in his back. He also charged that they taped his own screams and played the tape as a means of psychological pressure.

The interrogators also used what appeared to be the 'good cop, bad cop' method, by letting the director of the facility in with tea- biscuits and cola during a break.

Yamen said he was innocent, but after four or five days of interrogation he broke down and confessed, after which he led Israeli soldiers to an alleged weapons cache in Qalqiliya, which to the troops' anger was found empty.

The Shin Bet said in a reaction that its methods used were 'legal' in accordance with the supreme court ruling.

'The information obtained in these interrogations allows the foiling and prevention of terrorist attacks,' it said in a statement faxed to Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

'Many Israeli civilians owe their lives to these actions,' it said.

Israel says that, acing on information from arrested militants, in the past six months alone it managed to tracked down 11 explosive belts in the West Bank, of the kind used in deadly suicide bombings in Israeli cities.

Article 2 of the 1984 United Nations Convention Against Torture allows 'no exceptional circumstances whatsoever,' including a state of war or any emergency, as a justification of torture.

The convention, to which Israel is a signatory, defines torture as any act that inflicts 'severe' pain or suffering on a person for the purpose of obtaining information or a confession from him.

It excludes, however, pain or suffering arising from 'lawful sanctions.'