In a petition filed by HaMoked and four other human rights organizations against the unacceptable use by Israel of relatives as a means to put pressure on persons during police and ISA interrogations, the court ruled: The use of threats, promises and false pretenses relating to the wellbeing of relatives of persons under interrogation is prohibited

On 9 September 2009, the court reviewed a petition filed by the Committee against Torture in Israel, B’Tselem, HaMoked: Center for the Defence of the Individual, Physicians for Human Rights and Adalah against the use of relatives as a means of putting pressure on persons being interrogated by the police and the Israel Security Agency (ISA). The court ruled that the use of relatives was unacceptable. In addition, during hearings held by the Knesset’s Constitution Law and Justice Committee on this matter the state admitted that in one of the cases mentioned in the petition, the ISA did make unacceptable use of the suspect’s relatives and that no punitive measures whatsoever were taken against the interrogators. However, the state told the court that following the petition, the ISA clarified the prohibitions in this regard. 

In the petition, the organizations claimed that the use made by police and ISA of relatives as a means of putting pressure on persons being interrogated is morally unacceptable and constitutes severe mental pressure which causes torture of both the person under interrogation and his relatives. The petitioners claimed that these methods put the person under interrogation in the position of making a cruel choice between admitting the transgressions of which he is accused, even if he did not commit them, and possible harm to his loved ones. The petition was based on a number of cases in which relatives were used to exert pressure on a person who was under interrogation. In one of these cases, the subject attempted suicide after his father and wife were brought to the holding facility under false pretenses and he was told that they were also arrested because of his actions. The organizations demanded the court order the ISA and the police to desist from using these unacceptable methods of interrogation. 

Despite its finding, the court chose the easy route and accepted the state’s brief statement, on the basis of which it rejected the organizations’ petition, instead of demanding to see exactly how the prohibition was clarified by the ISA and the police and follow up on implementation of the prohibitions. 

To view the petition dated 16 April 2008 (Hebrew)