العربية
HE
العربية
HE
Despite the HCJ Ruling – ISA Continues to Pre-Authorize Torture during Interrogations
The application is directed at the government of Israel, the prime minister, the Israel Security Agency (ISA) and the head of the ISA, due to their responsibility for the policy of pre-authorizing the use of torture, dubbed by the ISA “necessity interrogations” while severely violating the ruling of the High Court of Justice (HCJ). The application claims that not only does the ISA and the prime minister, who is in charge of it, display contempt for the Supreme Court, but that this is a case of grave and systematic contempt entrenched in directives and regulations, which requires the judgment be enforced by means of the extraordinary measure of imprisoning those responsible: the prime minister and the head of the ISA.
In September 1999, following a petition filed by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel and HaMoked, the HCJ ruled that the government and the heads of the ISA do not hold the authority to institute directives, regulations and permits to use physical means during interrogations.
For close to a decade since the judgment known as the “torture judgment” was rendered, the petitioners have gathered evidence and testimonies proving the ISA have been systematically violating it.
A variety of sources indicate that the ISA procedures for torturing interrogees have been preserved in contravention of the judgment, domestic criminal law and international law. The application included confidential materials including clear evidence indicating prior authorization to inflict physical harm on an interrogee was given by the person in charge of the interrogator, and even by the head of the ISA himself. This was done in accordance with a set procedure known to interrogators, prosecutors and judges by the general name “the necessity interrogation procedure.”
The media also exposed the use of the necessity interrogation procedure. Thus, for example, an ISA response to a report in Haaretz newspaper stated: “The authorization to use force during interrogation is given at least at the level of head of an interrogation team, and sometimes comes from the head of the agency himself”, and in another place: “It shall be clarified that the authorization for the use of special means during interrogations can be given only by the head of the ISA.”
The application notes that the judgment unequivocally found that the actions of the ISA against a broad population of suspects and interrogees during a prolonged period in the past, and as it unfolds, also in the recent past of the last nine years, are illegal. The petitioners note that the perpetrators of these acts and those responsible for them may be investigated and criminally prosecuted for severe crimes both in the State of Israel and abroad, under Israeli law and under international law.
To view the application under the Contempt of Court Ordinance dated 2 November 2008 (Hebrew)
