Sentencing Hearing for Ameer Makhoul on 5 December in Haifa District Court

A sentencing hearing will be held for Ameer Makhoul, the director of Ittijah – The Union of Arab Community-Based Organizations and a human rights defender, on Wednesday 20 December 2010 in the Haifa District Court where colleagues, friends and family members will testify on his behalf. The court is likely to impose sentence at the end of December.  

On 27 October 2010, Mr. Makhoul, pled guilty to spying for Hezbollah, contact with a foreign agent and conspiring to assist an enemy. According to the terms of the plea bargain, the court will sentence Mr. Makhoul from between seven to ten years.

Mr. Makhoul decided to accept the plea bargain after consulting with his legal team and his family. While some of the offenses with which Mr. Makhoul was charged are vague such as “contact with a foreign agent,” historically, the Israeli legal system has handed down extremely harsh sentences for these types of charges.

Notwithstanding the plea bargain, Mr. Makhoul did not injure, harm or otherwise damage any individual. As a Palestinian Arab citizen of Israel, he did not have access to or provide any secret defense or intelligence information to an enemy agent; all of the information provided was freely available.

Mr. Makhoul's case comes during a particularly harsh political climate, at time when right-wing Knesset members, many of whom are part of the government's coalition, are proposing and discussing new anti-democratic, anti-Arab racist bills each week. These bills seek to threaten the citizenship status, political participation, land and housing rights, and the economic rights of Palestinian Arab citizens of the state. Adalah hopes that the court will not be influenced by the racist climate and that its judgment will be based on the indictment, which shows no security breach and no harm or injury to any person.

It is important to recall the gross violation of Mr. Makhoul's fundamental due process rights during his arrest and interrogation by the General Security Services (GSS). Mr. Makhoul was arrested at his home in Haifa on 6 May 2010 at 3:10 am. The police searched and ransacked his apartment, in front of his wife and daughters, confiscated his computers, mobile phones, and other belongings, and later, searched the offices of Ittijah. Mr. Makhoul was immediately held in isolation and prevented from meeting his lawyers for 12 days following his arrest. A gag order was imposed by the court on the case. During this period he was subjected to harsh interrogation methods by the GSS. Mr. Makhoul stated before the Magistrates' Court in Petach Tikva that severe interrogation methods had been used against him, which had caused him both psychological and physical harm, and as a result of which he confessed. If a person confesses during interrogation, there are very low chances that a court will accept a withdrawal of that confession by that person later, even if he so wishes. For more information, see HaMoked and B'Tselem: "Kept in the Dark: Treatment of Palestinian Detainees in the Petach- Tikva Interrogation Facility of the Israel Security Agency," October 2010, available:
http://www.btselem.org/English/Publications/Summaries/201010_Kept_in_the_Dark.asp

To lend your support, please contact: The Committee for the Defense of Ameer Makhoul, Chairperson, Dr. Hatim Kanaaneh, email: kanaaneh@hotmail.com