Criminal Procedure Law - Interrogating Suspects - Amendment No. 6

This amendment, which passed in the Knesset on 4 July 2012, extends the period of Amendment No. 4 to the Criminal Procedure Law which allows the interrogations of “security suspects” not to be recorded. Almost all of “security detainees” are Palestinians from the OPT or Palestinian citizens of Israel.

The law, passed in 2002, required the police to make audiovisual recordings of interrogations of suspects charged with crimes carrying a minimum sentence of at least ten years. The law established a schedule for its gradual implementation, with recordings of interrogations of “security suspects” to become mandatory from 2008, under Article 17. That year, however, the Knesset passed a temporary order extending the exemption until July 2012, ten years after the law was originally enacted. With the passing of amendment no. 6, the exemption is extended until July 2015. Notably, the requirement to make audiovisual recordings of interrogations does not apply to the Israel Security Agency (ISA) (also known as the GSS or Shabak).

On 21 December 2010, Adalah, together with Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, Al Mezan and the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI), filed a petition to the Supreme Court requesting that the exemption be cancelled. The petition was dismissed in February 2013, based on the justification that a new Knesset had just been elected, and the government promised to do a thorough examination of the amendment.