Supreme Court Criticizes Law that Violates Detainees' Rights

On 4 January 2009, the Supreme Court of Israel held a hearing on a petition challenging the constitutionality of the Criminal Procedure (Detainees Suspected of Security Offenses) Law submitted in March 2008 by The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI), The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) and Adalah. The petition demanded that the court annul the law, which blatantly violates the basic rights of detainees suspected of committing security offenses.

During the hearing, which lasted for some five hours, an expanded panel of seven Supreme Court justices, presided over by Chief Justice Dorit Beinisch criticized various aspects of the law. The law allows persons suspected of committing security offenses, in certain circumstances, to be detained for 96 hours without being brought before a judge (in ordinary criminal cases suspects must be brought to court within 24 – 48 hours of arrest), and to have their pre-trial detention extended in their absence and thus without their knowledge and without the opportunity to defend themselves.

The state argued that it possessed secret materials that provide explanations for why such a stricter detention law is necessary for security suspects. The state demanded that it present these materials in camera, outside the presence of the petitioners. The petitioners opposed this request, arguing that the materials in question relate to the core question of the constitutionality and purpose of the law, which the state also admits violates detainee’s rights. Thus, the petitioners argued that the materials must be made public if the state wished to introduce them in evidence.

No additional hearings have yet been scheduled.

Attorneys Eliahu Abram from PCATI, Lila Margalit from ACRI and Fatmeh El-‘Ajou from Adalah submitted the petition. Attorneys Bana Shoughry-Badarne from PCATI, Lila Margalit from ACRI, and Hassan Jabareen from Adalah represented the petition before the Supreme Court.

For more information see, “Human Rights Organizations Petition the Supreme Court to Nullify Law that Blatantly Violates Detainees' Rights” 6 March 2008.

H.C. 2028/08, Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, et al. v. The Minister of Justice, et al. (case pending)