Palestinian Non-Governmental Organization Network & the Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council Condemn the Israeli occupying forces torturing and injuring Samer Al’Arbeed 1

On Wednesday, 25 September 2019, Israeli occupation forces arrested Samer al A’rbeed. During the arrest Samer was harshly beaten by Israeli occupation forces using guns to beat him down. He was then taken to al-Mascobiyya interrogation center in Jerusalem and issued an order that bans him from meeting his lawyer. The following day Samer Al-Ar’beed had a court session without his lawyer, tortured and in critical health condition.

 

 Samer Al A’rbeed’s is now in a very critical health situation due to torture and ill treatment during his arreset and interrogations. According to his lawyer, Samer Al’Arbeed was unconscious, has several broken ribs, bruises all over his body in addition to suffering severe kidney failure. 

 

The prohibition against torture in international conventions and agreements was unequivocal in its interpretation. The Geneva Conventions of 1949, as well as Protocol I and II of 1977, include a number of articles that strictly prohibit cruel treatment and outrages upon human dignity. In addition, torture is prohibited under the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhumane or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which was adopted in 1948 and entered into force in 1978. The Convention against Torture states that no “exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war” may be invoked as a justification of torture, thus establishing an internationally-recognized peremptory norm against torture even in compelling circumstances relating to counter terrorism. Furthermore, according to the Rome Statute, Articles 8, 7, torture amounts to a war crime and when systematic and wide-spread to a crime against humanity. Also, Article 55 of the Rome Statues prohibits in specific torture and ill-treatment of prisoners during investigation. 

 

Palestinian NGO Network and the Palestinian Human Rights Council call upon the following:

 

•  The Israeli occupation authorities must immediately release Samer. Confessions taken under torture and ill-treatment are illegal and cannot be taken as evidence in court. Taking those confessions means the right to a fair trial is violated and thus the detention is arbitrary. 

 

• The Israeli occupation authorities must instantly investigate the conditions and environment of torture which Samer suffered from, and to hold those responsible accountable to their crimes. 

 

• The International Committee of the Red Cross must from a medical committee with the purpose of investigating the crime of torture and ill-treatment. 

 

• The UN Secretary General and the rest of the United Nationals committees and agencies need to take all the required and available procedures and steps to end the Israeli practice of torture and ill-treatment in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Additionally, to act immediately in actual attempts to hold the Israeli occupation authorities accountable to their crimes. 

 

• The lack of internal investigations for such grave human rights violations confirms the importance of third states to act upon their responsibilities as described by Articles 146 and 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention to hold perpetrators of torture accountable.