The Knesset Plenum on Monday approved in a first reading, by a vote of 17 to 5, a bill barring meetings with an attorney by a detainee held for a security offense committed on October 7. The draft will be turned over to the House Committee, which will decide which committee will deliberate the bill.
The bill proposes to extend the validity of the Operation Iron Swords emergency regulations until April 3, 2024. The regulations allow denial of a meeting with an attorney for detainees who are held for the hostile acts that took place between October 7 and 10, 2023, or those who were arrested as part of the war actions in Gaza between October 7, 2023, and the end of the war. The ban is allowed until the end of 180 days from the initial date on which the denial of the detainees’ meeting began.
ממשיכים להיכנע!! עכברים נאצים בתחתונים: לוחמי צה”ל עצרו מאות מחבלי חמאס וחשודים בחאן יונס. pic.twitter.com/CZvV8aqbrN
— ידידיה אפשטיין (@yedidya_epstien) December 28, 2023
The explanatory notes to the bill state: “The investigation of the terrorists who took part in the murderous terrorist attack is complex and irregular, and it has unique characteristics that have not been seen before in Israel. Given the large number of detainees and the complexity of the investigation, as stated above, the criminal investigation is expected to take a very long time.
“Under the existing circumstances, a vital and critical need has arisen to deny a meeting by these detainees with an attorney for a period that is significantly longer than the period currently prescribed by the Arrests Law, and also longer than the arrangement that applies to the detention of people suspected of security offenses in the Judea and Samaria region.”
COMPARISON: ACCESS TO LAWYERS BY GUANTANAMO PRISONERS
In the summer of 2012, the US government instituted a new protocol for civilian attorneys representing Guantanamo prisoners. It required lawyers to sign a memorandum of understanding, in which they agreed to certain restrictions, in order to continue to see their clients.
Government lawyers sought court approval to replace the court’s protective order with the MOU, to enable military officials to establish and enforce their own rules about when and how detainees could have access to legal counsel.
Under the MOU, lawyers’ access was restricted for detainees who no longer had legal challenges pending. The new rules tightened access to classified information and gave the commander of the Joint Task Force Guantanamo complete discretion over lawyers’ access to the detainees, including visits to the base and letters.
The Justice Department took the position that Guantanamo Bay detainees whose legal challenges have been dismissed do not need the same level of access to counsel as detainees who are still fighting in court.
On September 6, 2012, US District Chief Judge Royce C. Lamberth rejected the military’s assertion that it could veto meetings between lawyers and detainees. Judge Lamberth ruled that access by lawyers to their detainee clients at Guantanamo must continue under the terms of a long-standing protective order issued by federal judges in Washington.
