(JNi.media) On the evening of Tuesday, August 4, Meir Ettinger, who was detained by the Shin Bet internal security service, and is being held in the Kishon Detention Center outside Haifa, made serious allegations concerning his interrogators.
Ettinger, the grandson of Rabbi Meir Kahane, was picked up on Tuesday on suspicion of involvement with the torching of a Catholic church near the Kinneret. Ettinger is under forced exile from his home in Judea and Samaria over his “extremist” views and resides in Tsfat.
Honenu legal aid attorney Yuval Zemer, who represents Ettinger, stated that his client had been subjected to shaking, harsh interrogations and violence while in Shin Bet custody.
In 1999, petitions were filed with the Supreme Court of Israel claiming that some of the methods of interrogation being used by the Shin Bet, including shaking detainees during interrogation, keeping them in crouched positions for long periods of time, and sleep deprivation, amount to torture and are illegal.
An expanded court panel of nine justices unanimously accepted the petitions and ruled that, under the law, the Shin Bet is not authorized to use methods of interrogation which include physical pressure on the detainee being interrogated. In their verdict the justices ruled that, “The Shin Bet does not have the authority to ‘shake’ anyone.”
“I regard as very serious the harsh treatment which Mr. Ettinger has received from the Shin Bet interrogators and the use of violent methods during the interrogations,” Zemer said, noting that these means “are against the law and a complaint on the matter has been sent to the Israeli State Attorney and the Attorney General.”
As to Ettinger’s guilt, Zemer repeated his statement that “this is a false detention which the police are using for public relations purposes and which is causing Mr. Ettinger great suffering.”
Zemer indicated that, “unfortunately, due to the gag order, I am prevented from mentioning what the accusations are, however it appears that this is primarily a rehashing of material known to the interrogators for a long time.”
According to the Public Committee against Torture in Israel (PCATI), the precedent setting High Court of Justice ruling of 1999 which prohibited the use of several forms of torture, left significant gaps that have allowed for the perpetuation of torture and ill-treatment in Shin Bet interrogations.
The primary opening is the “necessity defense” which, under certain circumstances, exempts interrogators who employ illegal interrogation techniques, including physical violence, from criminal responsibility.
When a prisoner complains of torture, the Attorney General orders an initial investigation of the complaint to clarify whether the case fits the “necessity defense” which exempts the interrogator of responsibility. As of now, initial internal investigations have prevented thorough, independent investigations of all the complaints PCATI has submitted on behalf of prisoners.
Sworn affidavits of prisoners who underwent interrogation since the above ruling reveal that the license given by the Court to Shin Bet interrogators to employ their independent discretion in certain cases has allowed them to continue employing violent methods of interrogation.