The Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR) calls for an investigation into the torture of Mohammed al-Abed Yousef Abu Ghneimah, a 20-year-old resident of Al-Shuja’iya neighbourhood, Gaza Strip, while he was being detained at the Al-Shuja’iya Police station. Abu Ghneimah was also beaten at the Al-Shifa’ Hospital in Gaza city, leaving him with a broken arm.
According to the ICHR documentation, on 12 November 2016, Abu Ghneimah was detained at the Al-Shuja’iya Police station on grounds of a fight between the families of Abu Ghneimah and Al-Batniji. During the interrogation session, Abu Ghneimah was blindfolded and placed in iron restraints. One after the other, a number of General Investigations officers punched and kicked Abu Ghneimah. They also beat him with wooden and plastic sticks. In addition to hitting his head against the wall, Abu Ghneimah was punched in the face, leaving him with an incised wound under the left eye. Out of intense pain, Abu Ghneimah screamed that his right arm had been broken. Then, Police personnel transported him to the Al-Shifa’ Hospital in Gaza city. According to x-ray images, Abu Ghneimah did not sustain bone fractures in the arm. However, diagnosis showed that he had a severe swelling as a result of Shabeh.
Abu Ghneimah claimed that Police personnel assaulted him after the physician had left the room, in which he was treated. Having tied his left arm to the bed, they hit and broke his right arm with the butt of a Kalashnikov rifle. The physician wrapped a cast around Abu Ghneimah’s broken arm. This conduct disdains the human right to physical safety enshrined in relevant legal norms.
When they moved him from the holding cell to the interrogation room, Police personnel kept Abu Ghneimah both blindfolded and unguided. As a result, he slipped and fell on a staircase inside the Police station. He sustained contusions in various parts of his body.
The ICHR stresses that torture is a grave violation of the right to physical safety enshrined in Article 13 of the Palestinian Basic Law: “No person shall be subject to any duress or torture. Indictees and all persons deprived of their freedom shall receive proper treatment.” Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights also provides that “[n]o one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” Criminal and civil cases resulting from torture may not be subject to any statute of limitations. The Palestinian National Authority shall guarantee a fair remedy to those who suffer from such damage.
The ICHR views with deep concern the fact that the Gaza-based Police agencies continue to violation the right to physical safety by means of torture at detention centres. Since the beginning of 2016, the ICHR has documented 169 incidents, in which complainants claimed they had been subjected to torture in the Gaza Strip.
Against this background, the ICHR demands:
- The Public Prosecution to start a serious and effective investigation into the crime of torturing Abu Ghneimah and to publish the results of the investigation.
- To hold perpetrators of torture crimes to account and bring them to justice.
- To ensure that citizens held in detention centres are not subjected to physical assaults.
- To provide needed medical treatment to detained persons in line with the guarantees of fair trial, financial remedy, and physical and psychological rehabilitation to victims of violence.
- The judicial bodies and Public Prosecution to oversee detention centres in tandem with their legally prescribed role to make sure that detained persons are not subject to human rights abuses.
- The security agencies to preserve the sanctity of hospitals and healthcare centres, protect patients and keep them safe from any practices of torture.
