The Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR) condemns the attack on one of its Field Researcher Advocate Yazan Sawafta in its northern office in Nablus Yesterday Monday, 09/01/2012, while covering a sit-in carried out by relatives of the detainees in the city center of Nablus.  The lawyer was repeatedly beaten on his chest and feet by a member of the Preventive Security Service, known to the Commission. He was following and taking pictures of the ICHR’s Field Researcher, while he was documenting the sit-in and clarifying the view of the media on the issues related to arbitrary arrests for their political affiliations. At the end of the sit-in, the member of the Preventive Security Service asked the researcher to show his identity card and his own camera. He identified the personality of the Field Researcher and his place of work.  After about ten minutes, he returned, accompanied by two other members of the Preventive Security Service, then he attacked the Field Researcher and threatened to indict him, in addition to the confiscation of the camera which belongs to ICHR, his identity card and his own official papers. They did not stop the attack, unless after the intervention of other members of the Service.

ICHR considers the attack on any citizen a clear violation of the law and the instructions issued by the official authorities and constitutes a serious violation of the dignity and human rights.

The assault on one of the ICHR researchers during the performance of his official job in an official constitutional human rights institution established by a Presidential Decree constitutes a serious violation of the role of human rights activists and a crime punishable by law and requires prosecution to punish the perpetrator.

In light of this, ICHR will take the following steps:

1. To address the President of the PNA, Prime Minister, and other official authorities to issue instructions to take the necessary action against the perpetrator.

1. To lodge a criminal complaint to the competent Palestinian judicial bodies to prosecute and punish the perpetrator and to claim compensation for the material and moral damage caused to ICHR’s Field Researcher.

1. To engage with the UN Human Rights Council by lodging an official complaint to the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders to intervene with the relevant authorities in accordance with the UN non-treaty based machinery for the protection and promotion of human rights.

1. To call on civil society organizations for solidarity with the ICHR  if no proper legal procedures or serious actions were undertaken against the perpetrator.