Adala: Ofer prison authority imposes strip searches on female visitors
[ 04/09/2009 - 04:03 PM ]
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Adalah, The legal center for the Arab minority rights in Israel, called in a letter to the Israeli prison authority and the Ofer prison authority for an end to the practice of strip searching women visiting their relatives in prison.
The centre sent the letter on behalf of two Palestinian women from occupied east Jerusalem who had to give the visit on more than one occasion after arriving at the prison because they were told they would have to be strip-searched if they wanted to see their imprisoned relatives.
The two women said that on arrival at the Ofer prison they went through the usual search, then they were asked to go to an adjoining room, when they entered the room, they saw that it had a window, they could not see who is behind that window, but they heard a female telling them on a loud speaker to strip naked and when they refused a female prison officer entered the room and told them that they have to be strip-searched if they wanted to see their relatives. They refused and returned without visiting their imprisoned relatives.
The two women concerned said that this was not a one off, but it happened to them several times and added that women from east Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank are subjected to this sort of humiliation when they visit their relatives in prison.
Adalah for its part said that these searches were illegal except in certain cases where a person is suspected of carrying drugs or arms on his body and that such searches contravene the rights of both the visitor and the prisoner.
[ 04/09/2009 - 04:03 PM ]
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Adalah, The legal center for the Arab minority rights in Israel, called in a letter to the Israeli prison authority and the Ofer prison authority for an end to the practice of strip searching women visiting their relatives in prison.
The centre sent the letter on behalf of two Palestinian women from occupied east Jerusalem who had to give the visit on more than one occasion after arriving at the prison because they were told they would have to be strip-searched if they wanted to see their imprisoned relatives.
The two women said that on arrival at the Ofer prison they went through the usual search, then they were asked to go to an adjoining room, when they entered the room, they saw that it had a window, they could not see who is behind that window, but they heard a female telling them on a loud speaker to strip naked and when they refused a female prison officer entered the room and told them that they have to be strip-searched if they wanted to see their relatives. They refused and returned without visiting their imprisoned relatives.
The two women concerned said that this was not a one off, but it happened to them several times and added that women from east Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank are subjected to this sort of humiliation when they visit their relatives in prison.
Adalah for its part said that these searches were illegal except in certain cases where a person is suspected of carrying drugs or arms on his body and that such searches contravene the rights of both the visitor and the prisoner.
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