petition (H)
On 28 April 2004, one month after the filing of Adalah’s petition and the state’s acknowledgement that a “mistake” had been made, the State Attorney’s Office notified the Haifa District Court that Mr. Mohammed Kannaneh, the General Secretary of Abna al-Balad (an extra-parliamentary political movement), and Mr. Majed Kannaneh had been transferred to another prison facility - Shata Prison - from the General Security Service’s (GSS) cell block at the Kishon Detention Center (also known as “Jalameh”). Following the state’s representation, the Court decided that as the petitioners’ main request had been met, there was no need to continue hearing the petition.
Since late March 2004, Adalah Attorney Orna Kohn has been submitting motions on behalf of the two political detainees against the warden of the Kishon Detention Center, the Israeli police, and the GSS seeking their immediate transfer to another Prison Service facility as well as the improvement of detention conditions in the GSS cell block to meet domestic law and international standards for the treatment of prisoners. On 31 March 2004, the Haifa District Court rejected the motions, as well as Adalah’s request for an urgent hearing, relying on representations made by the State Attorney’s Office to the Court, that the detainees would be transferred immediately after the Passover holidays – on or about 13 April 2004.
At a Court hearing held on 14 April 2004, the Haifa District Court criticized the Israel Prisons Service (IPS) stating: “It is unclear why the IPS did not follow my decision with regards to the rights of the respondents to visits… If there is a difficulty in enabling visits in their current holding place, the IPS should take the necessary steps to enable the visits.” At the time of the filing of the petition, Mr. Mohammed Kannaneh, aged 38, and Mr. Majed Kannaneh, aged 33, both Arab citizens of Israel from Arrabeh village in the Galilee, had been detained under cruel, inhumane, and degrading conditions in GSS cell blocks for 54 days. They were arrested in early February 2004, along with two other Abna al-Balad political activists, who were released one month later. All of the detainees were initially held without charge; prevented from meeting with their families and their attorneys for 18-21 days; and subjected to intensive interrogation by the GSS. At the request of the GSS, the Magistrate Court issued a total gag order on the cases, preventing the publication of any details about their arrest or detention until 4 March 2004.
Adalah Attorneys Orna Kohn and Abeer Baker as well as private lawyers Wakim Wakim, Moanis Khoury, Salim Wakim and Ibrahim Kannaneh have represented the political activists from the time of their arrest, appearing almost twenty times before the Magistrate Court, District Court, and Supreme Court of Israel at these pre-indictment hearings. At these hearings, the attorneys attempted to secure the political activists’ release from detention; to obtain information about their locations of detention, as the state, at times, transferred the detainees from place-to-place without informing counsel and refused to disclose their whereabouts; to obtain information about their conditions of detention; and to try to lift the orders prohibiting meetings with counsel. The only information provided by the GSS to the attorneys, at that time, were the penal code provisions relating to various security offenses allegedly violated by the political activists; notably, this information must be disclosed with every request for the extension of detention.
During those court hearings, held over a one-month period, the attorneys argued that the GSS severely violated the political activists’ basic rights, especially during the interrogations. The unreasonably, lengthy prohibition on meeting with lawyers and receiving legal counsel violated their right to representation. The methods utilized by the GSS during the questioning of the political activists included tying them to their chairs; depriving them of sleep; failing to give one of them essential medical treatment, when needed; preventing them from bathing for long periods of time; and providing them with inaccurate, misleading information about their basic legal rights. These GSS actions violated the political activists’ rights to due process, life, privacy, and dignity.
Mr. Mohammed Kannaneh and Mr. Majed Kannaneh were indicted on 4 March 2004 for alleged security offenses. Since they were indicted, they were held at the GSS cellblock of the Kishon Detention Center in crowded holding cells, without windows, for 24 hours a day. They were denied their rights as protected by law to: leave the cell for any daily exercise; receive any visits from family members; send or receive letters; contact their family or their attorneys by telephone; receive or to hold any books and newspapers; possess a radio, pens and paper; receive basic hygienic supplies such as toothbrushes and toothpaste; have a daily shower; and sleep on a bed. They were forced to sleep on mattresses on the floor of their holding cell using dirty blankets supplied by the Detention Center. Toilet facilities were inside of the cell without any separation, providing no privacy to users or to the others held in the cell. After the Detention Center ignored previous court judgments ordering it to implement the minimum rights and conditions as provided by law, the detainees’ began a hunger strike.
In the petition filed to the Haifa District Court, Adalah argued that since their arrest, the detainees have been denied the minimum conditions and rights granted to them by Israeli domestic law, pursuant to Article 9 of the Criminal Procedure (Enforcement Powers - Arrest) Law - 1996 (Conditions of Detention) and as specified in numerous provisions of the accompanying 1997 regulations to this law regarding the minimum conditions of holding in detention and the rights of detainees. Adalah further argued that the detention conditions in the GSS cellblock are cruel, inhumane, and degrading and breach the detainees’ constitutional rights to dignity, freedom, privacy, and family life, as protected by the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty - 1992. These detention conditions further violate international standards, namely Article 16 of the Convention against Torture, which prohibits acts of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, as well as the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners.
On 29 March 2004, the State Attorney for the Haifa District, representing the position of the Detention Center, the Israeli police and the GSS, claimed that: “The respondents agree that at this stage, after the submission of the indictment... they should be held in a wing under the authority of the Prison Service (and accordingly to receive the rights that they are entitled to by law). According to the response of the Prison Service, it was because of a mistake that their names were not transferred to the Prison Service in order to arrange for them to be absorbed in the usual manner. Once this mistake was known, the relevant bodies are acting in order to transfer the petitioners as soon as possible, as requested in the petition. Because of all of the above, the petition is not relevant anymore, and the Honorable Court is asked to reject it.” The Haifa District Court had refused to issue a temporary transfer order or to schedule an urgent hearing, although: (1) The State Attorney admitted to some facts as presented in the petition and did not deny the rest; (2) None of the respondents committed to a specific date for the transfer of the detainees; and (3) None of the respondents committed to changing any of the detainees’ conditions of detention in the GSS cell block. As a result, Mr. Mohammed Kannaneh and Mr. Majed Kannaneh, remained in the GSS cell block under the same cruel, inhumane, and degrading conditions for 3 ½ months.