Adalah: Proposed Bill Allowing for One-Year Ban on Meetings between Prisoners and their Attorneys is Unconstitutional

On 26 June 2011, Adalah sent a letter to Member of Knesset (MK) Amnon Cohen, Chairman of the Knesset's Interior Committee, demanding that a bill to amend the Prisons Ordinance that would increase the severe restrictions placed on meetings between "security" prisoners and detainees and their attorneys should be rejected. Adalah argued that the bill was unconstitutional and grossly violated the constitutional rights of prisoners and their lawyers. The letter was sent by Adalah Attorney Rima Ayoub.

The bill seeks to expand the grounds on which an attorney may be prevented from meeting a prisoner, and to increase the existing periods in which a ban on such meetings may be imposed. The bill would expand the Israel Prison Service's (IPS) authority to prevent a prisoner from meeting with his or her lawyers for up to 96 hours, as opposed to the current limit of 24 hours. Under the bill, the IPS may further extend the ban for 14 days, up from five days under the existing law. While a court must today approve prohibitions on meetings between prisoners and lawyers beyond five days, under the new bill a court must authorize an extension only after 15 days.

In addition, the bill would permit a court to extend a ban on prisoners' meetings with their attorneys for six months at a time, up from 21 days under the current legislation. Under the bill, a court can extend a ban for a total period of one year, compared to three months under the existing law.

The bill also expands the grounds on which the authorities may prevent meetings between a prisoner and his or her attorney. Under the current law, a meeting can be prohibited if there is a real suspicion that the meeting may harm the security of a person, the public, of the state, or of the prison. The bill adds the additional ground of suspicions that the meeting would allow for the transfer of information between prisoners or between prisoners and persons outside the prison where there are concerns that this information relates to the activities of terrorist organizations.

In the letter, Attorney Ayoub argued that this ground is extremely vague and will gravely harm the rights of the prisoners and their lawyers. In effect, it seeks to impose sanctions on a prisoner and his or her lawyer based on suspicions alone, even if the information passed between them involves no criminal or administrative infraction.

Attorney Ayoub further argued that the proposed amendment would result in sweeping and disproportionate harm to the constitutional rights of prisoners to legal representation – especially Palestinian prisoners classified as "security prisoners" – as well as their rights to consult their lawyers and access the courts. It would also violate the constitutional rights of lawyers to freedom of occupation, dignity and good reputation. The bill is an affront to the principle of equality and would have a discriminatory impact on "security prisoners" in realizing their right to legal counsel compared to the rest of the prison population.

Attorneys who represent Palestinian political prisoners must visit them often in prison because of the severe limitations that are placed on contact with their families, or total ban in the case of prisoners from Gaza. In addition, various restrictions already apply to meetings between political prisoners and their lawyers, from the detailed searches that lawyers must undergo, to the glass barriers that separate them during the meetings, preventing the direct exchange of documents or signatures and hindering free discussion. If adopted, the bill would leave the prisoner isolated from the outside world, and would empty the right to legal counsel of all meaning.

The Letter (Hebrew)