Russian Compound , Monday 12 June 2006Reporting: Hava H.The Judge: Major Shmuel FleischmanAttorney: M.H.I.A-D, the detainee, is a student at the American University near Jenin who has Israeli citizenship. He was born in Oman to Palestinian parents living in Algeria who at some point received Israeli citizenship. A year or two ago, when I.A-D had completed secondary school, he came here to study at the American University. He was arrested on 24 April 2006 and has since then been under interrogation for the past 52 days. After 5 June , the material from the interrogation sessions was passed to the military prosecutor at Salem (with the aim of having him brought to trial in a court near the place where he “committed the offences”). Subsequently he was brought for trial to Ofer where the authorities could not find his file and did not know what to do with him. After some clarification, he was taken to Salem where yet again they could not find the file and did not know what to do with him. Thus he was returned to the Russian Compound [ where he had previously been held?]. We met him after a run-around such as only the military justice system could dream up. The police prosecutor sought a 10-day extension of remand and the following is an account of the session at which that request was heard.Lawyer: Since when has he been held?Policeman: Since 24 April.Attorney: Does the detainee know what he is suspected of?Policeman: Membership in a hostile organization and endangering the security of the area.Attorney: Which organization?Policeman: I don’t know the details (and indeed he did not know them, being similarly unable to answer many other questions, nor did he think this was any of his business). Attorney: Would it be true to say that what he is suspected of is selling books off a stall set up at a computer fair at the university?The policeman directed the attorney to the confidential report, but the judge, who was leafing through the file, said that the detainee was suspected of membership and activity in a hostile organization (we would like to know which one).Attorney: Is it true to say that one of the things of which he is accused is of dancing at a party of the organization?Policeman: The accusations are all detailed in the confidential report.Attorney: Where was the offence committed?Policeman: We are not at the stage of presenting proof and I don’t have to answer you. But I am prepared to have a looked again at the file and then to tell you. [ Although the policeman claimed that this was the second time he was reading the file, I believe it was in fact the first time. (H.H.)]After looking at the file, the policeman continued: At Zababda (i.e. at the university).Summing up, the policeman again asked that remand in custody being extended for a further 10 days to permit the interrogation to be completed.Attorney: The suspect has already been held in custody for 552 days. For one semester he was a member of Jab’a el-Amal organization which is part of Itihad el-Talabeh (the university’s student union). He sold books at a stall and danced at some celebration held by Jab’a el-Amal. The last time he was interrogated was on 24 May, or 19 days ago. Everything surrounding this case, and the way in which he has been shunted from here to there, backwards and forwards, testifies to the carelessness with which this file has been handled. He has family in Jerusalem ready to post bail for him. Summing up, the attorney asked that his client be released either on restrictive conditions, or under house arrest, pending the case coming to trial. In handing down his decision, the judge detailed the suspicions against the detainee. In addition to his activities in the student organization, the selling of the books and the dancing, he also noted that one of the students had sought his help in gaining entrance to Jerusalem :”luckily for him,” the judge said, “he refused” [if he refused, why was this detail noted in the interrogation file? H.H.]. Other offences: he had tried , but failed, to recruit two students to Jab’a el-Amal. Further: a fellow student had asked I.A-D to put him up overnight in his room because |Nablus was totally closed on that occasion and he had nowhere to spend the night. I.A-D. had acceded to his request. And finally, the detainee was suspected of going to visit a female student who was also “active in the organization ” and there meeting with the daughter of Ahmed Samara (who had assassinated Israeli cabinet minister Repave We’ve in October 2001).In handing down his decision, the judge extended remand in custody by four days, saying that if charges were not filed by 15 June, the detainee would be released on terms to be decided by the court. There would be no further extension of remand in custody, he ruled.————————————————Salem, 15 June 2006 Reporting: Netta G.With truly amazing speed, I.A-D.’s case had been transferred from the Russian Compound to the Salem military court, perhaps in the hope of overturning the decision detailed above. But we found no trace of him at Salem , learning from his attorney that the authorities had apparently forgotten about him and that therefore the case would be heard in Jerusalem . The attorney made arrangements with a colleague to stand in for him in Jerusalem in case he could not get there in time. But he did manage and once in the court there he heard the police prosecutor ask for a further four days remand in custody. This the judge refused to grant (in line with the earlier decision), ruling instead that I.A.-D. be released on bail of 10,000 shekels with two guarantors . The family produced the money and the two guarantors, but the detainee was no longer in Jerusalem. He had been sent off to Salem. The attorney rushed off in pursuit to find that in Salem the police prosecutor was claiming that the family had failed to meet the bail terms and that the detainee must therefore not be released. And so it went on, backwards and forwards between the attorney, the detainee, the family, the police prosecutor, the bail terms , the judge, etc.etc.When I spoke by phone to the attorney at around 6:30 that evening, he was on his way back to Jerusalem with I.A.-D. in his car after the young man had been released under restrictive conditions and on 10,000 shekels bail until the hearing of his case on 20 August, in Salem.