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Dear friends,
Last week Israel’s Supreme Court rejected an appeal filed by Amiram Ben Uliel, who was convicted of firebombing the home of the Dawabsheh family in the Palestinian village of Duma in 2015, killing three members of the family. His conviction was based on a confession he made 36 hours after he was subjected to torture by ISA (Shabak) interrogators.
This is not the first time that suspects have made confessions after undergoing torture during their interrogation, and the phenomenon is hardly surprising. Only last year, headlines reported the prosecution of three residents of Jaffa who confessed after an ISA interrogation to participating in the lynching of a soldier during Operation “Guardian of the Walls”. They later retracted their confession. Their case was dismissed after CCTV camera footage showed that they were not even present at the scene of the incident. This is by no means the only example.
The use of torture during interrogations is an unbearable practice. Its aim is to break the human body and spirit. It is completely antithetical to basic human rights such as the right to dignity, life, and physical integrity. It degrades and violates the human image of both the torturer and the victim.
In the case of Ben Uliiel, PCATI has submitted requests to join as an amicus curiae, both during proceedings at the district court and during the appeal to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court chose to reject our request, without stating its grounds. In a response we issued following the ruling rejecting Ben Uliel’s appeal, we emphasized that the decision to leave a man in prison on the basis of a confession extracted by torture is a profound moral failure. Despite the gravity of the acts of which Ben Uliel was accused, and the terrible tragedy sustained by the Dawabsheh family, the Court should have granted decisive weight to the fact that before Ben Uliel confessed he was subjected to forms of interrogations involving severe and protracted torture. It is well known that such practices may lead interrogees to confess to actions they did not actually commit.
The case of Ben Uliel, like other cases we process regularly, shows beyond all doubt that the time has come to enact a law in Israel outlawing torture. All ISA interrogations must be video documented in order to ensure that they do not include improper actions that distort justice and damage our human image as a society.
I invite you to join PCATI’s struggle to free Israel from torture by making a one-time or regular donation through our secure website >> |
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Yours,
Tal Steiner
Executive Director, PCATI
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