10 January 2012 | Popular Struggle Coordination Committee
Major Sharon Rivlin, a judge at the Ofer Military Court, accepted as admissible the testimony of a 14 year-old Palestinian boy who was unlawfully arrested in the dead of night, questioned without being allowed sleep, denied his right to legal counsel and not told of his right to remain silent.
A motion to rule inadmissible the confession of 14 year-old Islam Dar Ayyoub from the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh was denied by a military judge yesterday. The motion was part of a trial-within-a-trial procedure at the Ofer Military Court, where the boy is being charged with throwing stones. During the trial, it was proven that the boy’s interrogation was fundamentally flawed and violated the rights set forth in the Israeli Youth Law in the following ways:
The boy was arrested at gunpoint in the dead of night, during a violent military raid on his house.
Despite being a minor, he was denied sleep in the period between his arrest and questioning, which began the following morning and lasted over 5 hours.
Despite being told he would be allowed to see a lawyer, he was denied legal counsel, although his lawyer appeared at the police station requesting to see him.
He was not informed of his right to remain silent, and was even told by his interrogators that he “must tell of everything that happened.”
Only one of four interrogators who participated in the questioning was a qualified youth interrogator.
The above mentioned Israeli Youth Law and the protection it is meant to ensure for minors during their interrogations is not officially part of the Israeli military code for trying Palestinians in Israeli military courts. However, the Military Court of Appeals repeatedly ruled that it should be applied when interrogating Palestinian minors in the Occupied Territories nonetheless.
Nevertheless, the military judge determined that the boy’s confession should not be ruled inadmissible, saying that “In my opinion, the infringement on the defendant’s rights in this concrete case, did not amount to a violation of his right in a way that will sufficiently endanger his right to a fair trial […].” The decision was made despite a psychiatric expert opinion handed to the court which determined that a boy of 14 undergoing such an interrogation could not be considered to have given a statement of his own free will.
Adv Gaby Lasky, the boy’s lawyer, said, “A reality in which the military court decides to accept the confession of a 14 year-old as admissible evidence despite severe and undisputed violation of his rights during both his arrest and interrogation, is unacceptable. It is an incomprehensible decision, unveiling the fact that legislation allegedly intended to protect minors’ rights is no more than lip service when Palestinians are concerned. This ruling sends a clear message that illegal arrest and interrogation of Palestinian minors can continue unhindered.”
Islam Dar Ayyoub, the 14 year-old who incriminated Tamimi after being unlawfully interrogated, will take the stand tomorrow at the Ofer Military Court. Tamimi has been incarcerated for seven months, in which only one witness testified.
Bassem Tamimi in court (PSCC)
The Military Prosecution will resume making its case against West Bank protest organizer from Nabi Saleh, Bassem Tamimi, at the Ofer Military Court tomorrow morning. Fourteen year-old Islam Dar Ayyoub – one of two main witnesses against Tamimi – is scheduled to give evidence to the court tomorrow, despite a motion by the defense to delay it. The defense has requested the postponement, as procedures by the boy’s own defense team to rule his testimony inadmissible, have not yet concluded.
Islam Dar Ayyoub, also from Nabi Saleh, was taken from his bed at gunpoint on the night of January 23rd. In his interrogation the morning after his arrest, Islam alleged that Bassem and Naji Tamimi organized groups of youth into “brigades”, charged with different responsibilities during the demonstrations: some were allegedly in charge of stone-throwing, others of blocking roads, etc.
During a trial-within-a-trial procedure in Islam’s trial, motioning for his testimony to be ruled inadmissible, it was proven that his police interrogation was fundamentally flawed and violated the rights set forth in the Israeli Youth Law in the following ways:
Despite being a minor, he was questioned in the morning following his arrest, having been denied sleep.
He was denied legal counsel, although his lawyer appeared at the police station requesting to see him.
He was denied his right to have a parent present during his questioning.
He was not informed of his right to remain silent, and was even told by his interrogators that he is “expected to tell the truth”.
Only one of four interrogators present was a qualified youth interrogator.
The audio-visual recording of another central witness against Tamimi, 15 year-old Mo’atasem Tamimi, proves that he too was questioned in a similarly unlawful manner.
Tamimi has been behind lock and key for the past seven months, in which only one out of over twenty prosecution witnesses have testified before the court. On September 25th, Major Michelle Dahan, who was commander of the military forces in the area and in charge of suppressing Nabi Saleh demonstrations, admitted to having dispersed demonstrations that were entirely peaceful, and alleged that Tamimi ordered youth to throw stones based on the fact that he saw him on rooftops during demonstrations.
Background
Bassem Tamimi is a veteran Palestinian grassroots activist from the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh, north of Ramallah. He is married to Nariman Tamimi, with whom he fathers four children – Wa’ed (14), Ahed (10), Mohammed (8) and Salam (5).
As a veteran activist, Tamimi has been arrested by the Israeli army 11 times to date, though he was never convicted of any offense. Tamimi spent roughly three years in administrative detention, with no charges brought against him. Furthermore, his attorney and he were denied access to “secret evidence” brought against him.
In 1993, Tamimi was falsely arrested on suspicion of having murdered an Israeli settler in Beit El – an allegation of which he was cleared of entirely. During his weeks-long interrogation, he was severely tortured by the Israeli Shin Bet in order to draw a coerced confession from him. During his interrogation, and as a result of the torture he underwent, Tamimi collapsed and had to be evacuated to a hospital, where he laid unconscious for seven days. As a result of the wounds caused by torture, Tamimi was partially paralyzed for several months after his release from the hospital.
At the opening of his trial on June 5th, Tamimi pleaded “not guilty” to all charges against him, but proudly owned up to organizing protest in the village. In a defiant speech before the court he said, “I organized these peaceful demonstrations to defend our land and our people.” Tamimi also challenged the legitimacy of the very system which trys him, saying that “Despite claiming to be the only democracy in the Middle East you are trying me under military laws […] that are enacted by authorities which I haven’t elected and do not represent me.” (See here for Tamimi’s full statement).
The indictment against Tamimi is based on questionable and coerced confessions of youth from the village. He is charged with’ incitement’, ‘organizing and participating in unauthorized processions’,’ solicitation to stone-throwing’, ‘failure to attend legal summons’, and a scandalous charge of ‘disruption of legal proceedings’, for allegedly giving youth advice on how to act during police interrogation in the event that they are arrested.
The transcript of Tamimi’s police interrogation further demonstrates the police and Military Prosecution’s political motivation and disregard for suspects’ rights. During his questioning, Tamimi was accused by his interrogator of “consulting lawyers and foreigners to prepare for his interrogation”, an act that is clearly protected under the right to seek legal counsel.
As one of the organizers of the Nabi Saleh protests and coordinator of the village’s popular committee, Tamimi has been the target of harsh treatment by the Israeli army. Since demonstrations began in the village, his house has been raided and ransacked numerous times, his wife was twice arrested and two of his sons were injured; Wa’ed, 14, was hospitalized for five days when a rubber-coated bullet penetrated his leg and Mohammed, 8, was injured by a tear-gas projectile that was shot directly at him and hit him in the shoulder. Shortly after demonstrations in the village began, the Israeli Civil Administration served ten demolition orders to structures located in Area C, Tamimi’s house was one of them, despite the fact that part of the house was built in 1965 and the rest in 2005.
Legal background
On March 24th, 2011, a massive contingent of Israeli Soldiers raided the Tamimi home at around noon, only minutes after he entered the house to prepare for a meeting with a European diplomat. He was arrested and subsequently charged.
The main evidence in Tamimi’s case is the testimony of 14 year-old Islam Dar Ayyoub, also from Nabi Saleh, who was taken from his bed at gunpoint on the night of January 23rd. In his interrogation the morning after his arrest, Islam alleged that Bassem and Naji Tamimi organized groups of youth into “brigades”, charged with different responsibilities during the demonstrations: some were allegedly in charge of stone-throwing, others of blocking roads, etc.
During a trial-within-a-trial procedure in Islam’s trial, motioning for his testimony to be ruled inadmissible, it was proven that his interrogation was fundamentally flawed and violated the rights set forth in the Israeli Youth Law in the following ways:
Despite being a minor, he was questioned in the morning following his arrest, having been denied sleep.
He was denied legal counsel, although his lawyer appeared at the police station requesting to see him.
He was denied his right to have a parent present during his questioning.
He was not informed of his right to remain silent, and was even told by his interrogators that he is “expected to tell the truth”.
Only one of four interrogators present was a qualified youth interrogator.
The audio-visual recording of another central witness against Tamimi, 15 year-old Mo’atasem Tamimi, proves that he too was questioned in a similarly unlawful manner.
Since the beginning of the village’s struggle against settler takeover of their lands in December of 2009, the army has conducted 80 protest related arrests. As the entire village numbers just over 500 residents, the number constitutes approximately 10% of its population.
Tamimi’s arrest corresponds to the systematic arrest of civil protest leaders all around the West Bank, as in the case of the villages Bil’in and Ni’ilin.
Only recently the Military Court of Appeals has aggravated the sentence of Abdallah Abu Rahmah from the village of Bilin, sending him to 16 months imprisonment on charges of incitement and organizing illegal demonstrations. Abu Rahmah was released on March 2011.
15 October 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
The Friday demonstration in Nabi Saleh celebrated the release of three long term prisoners but protested the continued imprisonment of the remaining 5,000.
A demonstrator stands his ground as the Israeli military fires tear gas canisters.
The demonstration started out by visiting the house of prisoner Said Tamimi. Tamimi has been in prison since 1993, but his fellow prisoners who were arrested with him, Nizar Samir Tamimi and Ahmad Tamimi, will be released on Tuesday.
The demonstration continued towards the entrance of the village lead by the mother of Said Tamimi, chanting and singing slogans to honor all the political prisoners and protesting the illegal Israeli occupation. Before reaching the entrance of the village, the Israeli Occupation forces shot tear gas and sprayed foul-smelling “skunk water” at the demonstrators. After 2 hours the demonstration went back to the center of Nabi Saleh, and it was announced that all demonstrators were invited on Tuesday to a party for the released prisoners with the words:
The release of Palestinian prisoners are a Palestine wedding. Therefore we will celebrate it with an appropriate party.
The demonstration then continued until dawn. The IOF shot a massive amount of tear gas directly at demonstrators and an uncountable amount of rubber coated steel bullets, injuring several of the participants.The Israeli Occupation Forces attempted four times to enter the village but they were repelled. The soldiers also attempted to occupy a house near the entrance of the village but the family living in the house withstood. Instead the Israeli soldiers occupied the front garden of the house causing damage by puncturing a water tank with a tear gas canister, and a car window was broken.
The prisoners from Nabi Saleh who are going to be released as a part of the prisoners swap between Hamas and Israel all faced life time sentences. Ahlam Tamimi was sentenced 16 life terms accused of driving a man to Jerusalem who blew up a restaurant in 2001. She will be sent to exile in Jordan. The two other prisoners getting released are Ahmad Tamimi and Nizar Samir Tamimi. Along with Said Tamimi, who will remain in prison, they were accused of killing a settler and have all been in prison since 1993.
Since Nabi Saleh’s regular Friday demonstration began in 2009 against the land grab by illegal Israeli settlers, 10 % of the 500 citizens in the village have been arrested. Two members of the local Popular Committee are still in prison.
Naji Tamimi was arrested on the 5th of March in 2011. He is sentenced to one year in prison. Bassem Tamimi who was arrested the 24th of March 2011 has still not received a sentence. The main evidence brought against both men is the testimony from Islam Dar Ayyoub a 14 year old boy. It has been proven that during the interrogation of him, Israeli Youth Law was violated several times.
The alleged charges against Bassem and Naji Tamimi are among others that they organized and participated “in unauthorized processions” and that they organized youngsters to become a stone throwing “brigade.”
A judge at the Ofer Military Court ruled yesterday that Palestinian protest organizer, Bassem Tamimi, will remain in prison indefinitely, until the end of his trial. The judge denied a motion filed by Tamimi’s defense lawyer, adv. Labib Habib, to revisit a prior decision to hold Tamimi until the end of legal proceedings.
The motion to release Tamimi was filed nearly seven months after his arrest, and while only one witness was heard by the court in his case during that period. The defense argued that with the trial being conducted at such a slow pace, Tamimi will not receive a fair trial or a chance to fight for his innocence. With only one of 24 prosecution witnesses heard in seven months, the duration Tamimi’s trial is expected to exceed the anticipated sentence, even in case Tamimi will be convicted by the court.
The defense also pointed out the fact that three hearings were canceled so far at the fault of the prosecution, including one to which their witnesses did not show up and another to which the wrong witnesses were summoned by the prosecutor.
Tamimi’s lawyer also argued that the one testimony that was heard (click here for a summery of the hearing), that on a military commander who was in charge of dealing with the Nabi Saleh demonstrations, was based on hearsay and speculation.
The judge, however, decided to deny Tamimi’s motion, and ordered him to remain in custody. In his ruling, the judge determined that not enough time has passed and that the motion was premature, despite the delays in the trials. The judge also noted that since Tamimi’s alleged accomplice, Naji Tamimi, was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment, a reasonable time to file a motion to revisit Tamimi’s remand decision will only be a year after his arrest.
Background
Bassem Tamimi is a veteran Palestinian grassroots activist from the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh, north of Ramallah. He is married to Nariman Tamimi, with whom he fathers four children – Wa’ed (14), Ahed (10), Mohammed (8) and Salam (5).
As a veteran activist, Tamimi has been arrested by the Israeli army 11 times to date, though he was never convicted of any offense. Tamimi spent roughly three years in administrative detention, with no charges brought against him. Furthermore, his attorney and he were denied access to “secret evidence” brought against him.
In 1993, Tamimi was falsely arrested on suspicion of having murdered an Israeli settler in Beit El – an allegation of which he was cleared of entirely. During his weeks-long interrogation, he was severely tortured by the Israeli Shin Bet in order to draw a coerced confession from him. During his interrogation, and as a result of the torture he underwent, Tamimi collapsed and had to be evacuated to a hospital, where he laid unconscious for seven days. As a result of the wounds caused by torture, Tamimi was partially paralyzed for several months after his release from the hospital.
At the opening of his trial on June 5th, Tamimi pleaded “not guilty” to all charges against him, but proudly owned up to organizing protest in the village. In a defiant speech before the court he said, “I organized these peaceful demonstrations to defend our land and our people.” Tamimi also challenged the legitimacy of the very system which trys him, saying that “Despite claiming to be the only democracy in the Middle East you are trying me under military laws […] that are enacted by authorities which I haven’t elected and do not represent me.”
The indictment against Tamimi is based on questionable and coerced confessions of youth from the village. He is charged with’ incitement’, ‘organizing and participating in unauthorized processions’,’ solicitation to stone-throwing’, ‘failure to attend legal summons’, and a scandalous charge of ‘disruption of legal proceedings’, for allegedly giving youth advice on how to act during police interrogation in the event that they are arrested.
The transcript of Tamimi’s police interrogation further demonstrates the police and Military Prosecution’s political motivation and disregard for suspects’ rights. During his questioning, Tamimi was accused by his interrogator of “consulting lawyers and foreigners to prepare for his interrogation”, an act that is clearly protected under the right to seek legal counsel.
As one of the organizers of the Nabi Saleh protests and coordinator of the village’s popular committee, Tamimi has been the target of harsh treatment by the Israeli army. Since demonstrations began in the village, his house has been raided and ransacked numerous times, his wife was twice arrested and two of his sons were injured; Wa’ed, 14, was hospitalized for five days when a rubber-coated bullet penetrated his leg and Mohammed, 8, was injured by a tear-gas projectile that was shot directly at him and hit him in the shoulder. Shortly after demonstrations in the village began, the Israeli Civil Administration served ten demolition orders to structures located in Area C, Tamimi’s house was one of them, despite the fact that part of the house was built in 1965 and the rest in 2005.
Legal background
On March 24th, 2011, a massive contingent of Israeli Soldiers raided the Tamimi home at around noon, only minutes after he entered the house to prepare for a meeting with a European diplomat. He was arrested and subsequently charged.
The main evidence in Tamimi’s case is the testimony of 14 year-old Islam Dar Ayyoub, also from Nabi Saleh, who was taken from his bed at gunpoint on the night of January 23rd. In his interrogation the morning after his arrest, Islam alleged that Bassem and Naji Tamimi organized groups of youth into “brigades”, charged with different responsibilities during the demonstrations: some were allegedly in charge of stone-throwing, others of blocking roads, etc.
During a trial-within-a-trial procedure in Islam’s trial, motioning for his testimony to be ruled inadmissible, it was proven that his interrogation was fundamentally flawed and violated the rights set forth in the Israeli Youth Law in the following ways:
Despite being a minor, he was questioned in the morning following his arrest, having been denied sleep.
He was denied legal counsel, although his lawyer appeared at the police station requesting to see him.
He was denied his right to have a parent present during his questioning.
He was not informed of his right to remain silent, and was even told by his interrogators that he is “expected to tell the truth”.
Only one of four interrogators present was a qualified youth interrogator.
The audio-visual recording of another central witness against Tamimi, 15 year-old Mo’atasem Tamimi, proves that he too was questioned in a similarly unlawful manner.
Since the beginning of the village’s struggle against settler takeover of their lands in December of 2009, the army has conducted 80 protest related arrests. As the entire village numbers just over 500 residents, the number constitutes approximately 10% of its population.
Tamimi’s arrest corresponds to the systematic arrest of civil protest leaders all around the West Bank, as in the case of the villages Bil’in and Ni’ilin.
Only recently the Military Court of Appeals has aggravated the sentence of Abdallah Abu Rahmah from the village of Bilin, sending him to 16 months imprisonment on charges of incitement and organizing illegal demonstrations. Abu Rahmah was released on March 2011.
The arrest and trial of Abu Rahmah has been widely condemned by the international community, most notably by Britain and EU foreign minister, Catherin Ashton. Harsh criticism of the arrest has also been offered by leading human rights organizations in Israel and around the world, among them B’tselem, ACRI, as well as Human Rights Watch, which declared Abu Rahmah’s trial unfair, and Amnesty International, which declared Abu Rahmah a prisoner of conscience.
7 October 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
On 27 September 2011 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons announced the start of a campaign of disobedience to protest an escalating series of punitive measures taken against them by the Israeli Prison Service. Today marks the 8th day of their hunger strike.
A call for Solidarity actions around the world has been issued for this friday 7/10 where you can find your local initiatives here.
Today outside a sit-in at the Red Cross in Ramallah I met with Nariman Al Tamimi from Al Nabi Saleh village.
Bassem Tamimi photo: ActiveStills
Nariman is an ex-prisoner herself and the wife of the political prisoner Bassem Al Tamimi. As a resident of the village her family has been suffering from the Israeli occupation on a daily basis. In the space of 5 years she has been shot a total of 7 times, while her eldest son Wa’d who is 14 years old has been shot with rubber bullets over 10 times. Furthermore, their house faces the threat of immediate demolition by Israeli forces.
Due to her history Nariman has become a symbol of “somoud”- steadfastness- to many Palestinians. Despite the endless tragedies she is continually facing, she never wavered from demanding for her and her people’s full legitimate rights. Today from the sit-in in Ramallah, Nariman wished to send a message to the world urging them to take solidarity actions with the hunger strikers in Israeli jails.
I want to tell the world about international law and all the human rights resolutions that are meant to protect including the rights of prisoners of war. I would like to ask why these laws are not protecting our prisoners? Why are the human rights activists not doing anything regarding the Israeli violations? Why is the world still silent?
All we want is to be able to see our sons, daughters, husbands, fathers and mothers. We want them to be treated according to International Law. We want to have our rights like anyone else around the world. I am sure most of you heard about the Israeli captured militant ‘Gilad Shalit,’ but I wonder if you heard about the 8000 Gilad Shalits in Israeli jails? Most of the them are civilians, including children and women. I call all human rights organizations and activists to take the side of justice and save our prisoners.
Statistics of Palestinian Political Prisoners:
-340 Palestinian children are being held in Israeli Prisons
-There are well over 120 women in Israeli prisons, 17 of these women are mothers. 2 have given birth in prison. The youngest female currently held is 12 years of age.
-The majority of these detainees are being held in violation of the IV Geneva Convention in prisons outside of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
(Source: Addameer, Human Rights Centre and prisoners support)
Say NO to injustice and take part of the solidarity actions with Palestinian Prisoners. Visit here for more details.
