Extensions of detention, Migrash Ha’Rusim JerusalemMonday 22.5.06Observer: Hava H.Translation: Erez L.Two fundamental issues came to light today: the role of doctors at the Detention Center and Prison, and also a big change in the attitude of attorneys who all fought aggressively for the benefit of their clients. Courtroom hearings for the extensions of detention began at 12.00pm. Until then, I waited in the waiting room with three attorneys, the typist and a translator who was totally silent (even in the courtroom). The judge, as it is said here, is never late. He is delayed.The judge: Major M. Vachnish (ret.)The first detainee has been in custody for a week and is prevented of meeting with an attorney. The prosecutor, the man who represents the position of the General Security Service (GSS), after thier unterrogation of the detainee, requested an extension of detention, of 25 days. The detainee was questioned and “told his version of the story,” and there is also a classified file, but this was only a provisional version of the incident, and the investigation is set to continue.Ma’amoun, the attorney made an effort: “Of what crime is he suspected?”The prosecutor refer him to the classified file. The judge, however, intervenes and states that the detainee is suspected of membership in a hostile organization and of trading in illegal arms. That was the only question the attorney got answered, all of the rest being answered by reference to the “classified report.” As such, we still do not know if the prosecution has witnesses to support its case, if the detainee confessed, where the detainee was arrested and how many times he has been questioned. At this point, we stepped out into the corridor, and the detainee was brought into the courtroom, cuffed at the wrists and the ankles and with his eyes covered. In the same corridor amid the attorneys who were chatting away and the officers who were making jokes and the general noise of people passing to and fro, three more detainees were standing there cuffed and blindfolded, facing the wall, and they waited. As far as those people present, they were deaf, dumb and blind.Three more detainee entered the courtroom and left the courtroom, and the judge ordered the extensions of detention, for each of them.The next detainee had been arrested in Bethlehem a month earlier during an IDF operation in the area. During the operation, the detainee had suffered injuries to his chest, back and head. Treated at Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem for a week (apparently they felt that he was healed), he was moved to Migrash Ha’Rusim. His attorney wanted to verify the details of his clients medical status, asking whether he receives his necessary medications and if he is under the care and supervision of a doctor. The prosecutor brushed aside all of these concerns with a wave of his hand, and stated: “Of course, he is receiving all of the necessary medical care, and I am sure that if he wanted to see a doctor, he would be able to do so.”Later, the attorney told me that, on site, there was only one physician and that there are many people who complain of deficient medical care, where the most common response to any problem is to take an aspirin and to drink water. The entire discussion about medical care suddenly brought to light the complex questions of ethics in the medical care of prisoners, and the fact that the Federation of Medical Professionals in Israel assumes an active role in the Occupation. All of a sudden, to my amazement, a door opened in the back, and through it passed a man and women who crossed the courtroom (in the middle of the ongoing session) and then exited into the corridor. An attorney told me that the man was a dentist, and he has his clinic next to the courtroom.The next detainee, M.M.H. Abayat had been detained for already more than a month. He asked permission to telephone his family. The prosecutor requested that the detainee’s custody be extended another 8 days, and to the attorney’s question “why ?– you haven’t been investigating him for a long time”, the prosecutor responded that the investigation of the suspect is not necessarily frontal, that every activity that takes place here is part of the investigation of the suspect. I didn’t really understand what the prosecutor was trying to say, and it seems to me like it was just malicious obfuscation. The judge, with one eye fixed on the classified report, stated that the suspect was accused of very grave offenses, including being “personally tied to” activities aimed at harming the safety and security of the surrounding areas. This is an expression that they employ a great deal around here – “personally tied to suspicious activities” – and it’s ironic that the people who use it are those same people who spend all day every day tying other people up.The judge ruled that the investigating officers should have enough time to complete all of the necessary components of their investigation, and extended the detainee’s custody for 8 days.The last detainee that I saw, who was between 20-22 years old and from the village of Za’atara, had already been detained for 42 days, and had yet to confess or offer any version of his own of the events. The absurd complications regarding this detainee and his prolonged detention are related to the medical care at the facility. For the entire first month that he was there, he was never questioned by a member of the prosecution because he complained of heart problems and high blood pressure. Therefore, they never questioned him because they didn’t want him to have a heart attack in the middle of questioning. The attorney asks the detainee if he indeed had heart problems and high blood pressure, and the detainee was surprised to hear of anything of the sort. Indeed, the detainee has asthma, and he stated as much when he was arrested, but as far as his heart is concerned, everything is fine. It turns out that the accusations leveled against him have to do with his family. One of his close relatives announced his candidacy for a position with the local city council of Za’atara, affiliating himself with the party “Tarier VAsalach” (“Development and Reform”), which is associated with Hamas. The young detainee himself, who has no connection whatsoever with the group or movement, had helped his relative in his election campaign. And it is because of this that he got listed as taking part if activities aimed at destroying the general safety of the area and of membership in a terrorist organization. The prosecution claims that the detainee is a member of Hamas, and that the prosecution has in its possession incriminating evidence that attests to this fact. And I ask myself, where are all of the Europeans and the Americans that came here to inspect the fairness of the elections in the Palestinian Authority, and who ensured that everything was fair and good? And now, now that Hamas won the elections, where are they now when they are most needed?