For many years, the Interrogee Complaints Inspector – charged with examining complaints by interrogees against interrogators of the Israeli Security Agency (ISA) – was an integral part of the agency that employed the interrogators whose conduct the inspector was to examine. In June 2013, following a
long legal battle fought by HaMoked, the Inspector's position was transferred from the ISA to the Ministry of Justice.
However, the procedures regulating the manner of examining interrogees' complaints remained obscure as before. On September 10, 2014,
HaMoked wrote to the Ministry of Justice, seeking clarifications regarding the Inspector's powers. HaMoked inquired, inter alia, what was the mechanism for examining complaints, what were the decision making powers of the Head Inspector regarding each complaint, and was there a position of Supervisor of the Head Inspector authorised to issue a final decision on whether to initiate a criminal investigation against ISA interrogators.
The Ministry of Justice chose, unsolicited, to handle HaMoked's letter as an application under the Freedom of Information Act; later, it also demanded that HaMoked pay the stipulated fee for such an application – despite the fact that HaMoked appears on the list of NGOs exempt from fee payment, a list published by the governmental Freedom of Information Unit that belongs to the Ministry of Justice itself.
After more than two months,
the ministry response arrived. The response stated that the powers of the investigators of the Interrogee Complaints Inspector are the same as those of the disciplinary investigators under the Civil Service Law (Discipline) 1963. The response listed the options available to the Inspector at the end of a complaint review: shelving the file – with a possible recommendation to clarify or revise the procedures, or recommending initiation of legal action, including criminal investigation. Final decision as to the Inspector's recommendations is with the Attorney General, directly or by appointment. Inside the State Attorney's Office, the supervisor of the inspector overseeing the Inspector's files. Given the scope of HaMoked's inquiry, it is clear that the Ministry of Justice's response is very incomplete. Among other things, the ministry did not address the question of whether there was any written document specifying the Interrogee Complaints Inspector's work regulations. HaMoked will continue its efforts to ascertain whether such a document exists, and if so, to receive a copy from the ministry.
