[ 21/10/2010 - 09:14 AM ] It said that these two torture cases are among more than 100 others registered so far this year with the independent commission for human rights.
The PA preventive security apparatus kidnapped Ahmed Salhab, a 42-year old mechanic from Al-Khalil, on September 19, 2010 and detained him until October 16, first in Al-Khalil and then in Jericho. On October 16, he was taken from prison to hospital in Al-Khalil suffering from injury to previously torn spinal discs and severe mental distress, which he told human rights watch resulted from torture in custody.
The second man, who asked not to reveal his name, was arrested on September 16 and held first in the preventive security prison in Al-Khalil and then in Jericho, where, he said, he was tortured for 10 days. Both were accused of having ties to Hamas.
"The reports of torture by the Palestinian security services [in the West Bank] keep rolling in," deputy director of human rights watch middle east branch Joe Stork said.
Stork added that de facto president Mahmoud Abbas and his premier Salam Fayyad "are well aware of the situation" and "they need to reverse this rampant impunity and make sure that those responsible are prosecuted."
"A year after president Abbas was informed that this man (Salhab) had been tortured to the point of disability, the Palestinian security services denied him medical care, tortured him again, and then detained him for days after he was essentially paralyzed by pain and fear," the HRW official said. "This revolting case is the clear result of the Palestinian authority's failure to end impunity for abuse."
On August 31, Hamas's armed wing Al-Qassam Brigades claimed responsibility for an attack that killed four Israeli settlers in Al-Khalil area, HRW explained further. The PA subsequently detained hundreds of people around Al-Khalil who were suspected of Hamas ties.
Both Salhab and the other man were among others who were detained arbitrarily at the time. Although the Palestinian law requires that officers carrying out arrests present a warrant, they did not show a warrant either to Salhab or to the other man, the two men told HRW.
HRW stated that "the PA has been extremely lax in prosecuting security officials for torture and ill-treatment of detainees. In the only known prosecution, a PA military court in July acquitted five intelligence officers from Al-Khalil who tortured Haitham Amr to death in June 2009.
Palestinian detainees registered 106 complaints of torture with the human rights commission from January to September 2010. Since June 2007, according to the commission, the PA security apparatuses have been responsible for the deaths in custody of eight detainees in the West Bank.
Salhab, for his part, told HRW that he witnessed the preventive security agents tightly binding and torturing other detainees in Jericho prison, and that each time he left his cell he saw between four to five men blindfolded with their hands tied behind their backs, and that he heard screams of pain from morning until late at night.
According to the Palestinian information center (PIC), Al-Khalil interrogation center or prison is known by the Palestinians there as the torture castle for it looks like a fort surrounded by tight military arsenal.
Hamas cadres and supporters, who are kidnapped by different PA security apparatuses, are transferred to this place as a second detention station after they undergo the first stage of interrogation and maltreatment in small detention centers located across the city.
In a separate incident, the PA security militias have kidnapped eight Palestinian citizens affiliated with Hamas Movement in the cities of Ramallah, Al-Khalil and Tulkarem, according to local sources on Thursday.
River to Sea
Uprooted Palestinian
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