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Autopsy shows Palestinian detainee tortured to
death in Israeli jail
A Palestinian prisoner who died in
an Israeli jail was tortured to death, a Palestinian official
charged on Sunday, dismissing Israeli accounts of an apparent
heart attack.
Arafat Jaradat’s autopsy showed torture resulting from fractures
in his body and bruises in his face, while his heart
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Geneva:
The ill-treatment of Palestinian children in the Israeli detention
centers “appears to be widespread, systematic and
institutionalized,” according to a report published Wednesday by
United Nations Children’s Fund.
In a 22-page report, UNICEF examined the state Palestinian
children in Israeli military detentions and concluded with
instances of “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or
punishment.”
“This conclusion is based on the repeated allegations about such
treatment over the past 10 years and the volume, consistency and
persistence of these allegations,” according to the report.
Over the past decade, Israeli forces have arrested, interrogated
and prosecuted around 7,000 Palestinian children aged between 12
and 17, most of them boys, the report said, noting the rate was
equivalent to “an average of two children each day.”
“In no other country are children systematically tried by juvenile
military courts that, by definition, fall short of providing the
necessary guarantees to ensure respect for their rights,” it said.
The vast majority of arrests are for throwing stones, which is
considered an offence under Section 212 of Military Order 1651.
Although the maximum sentence for children of 12 and 13 is six
months, the penalty rises dramatically from the age of 14 when a
child can face a maximum penalty of between 10 and 20 years
depending on the circumstances, it said.
In a step-by-step analysis of the procedure from arrest to trial,
the report said the common experience of many children was being
“aggressively awakened in the middle of the night by many armed
soldiers and being forcibly brought to an interrogation centre
tied and blindfolded, sleep deprived and in a state of extreme
fear.”
Many were subjected to ill-treatment during the journey, with some
suffering physical or verbal abuse, being painfully restrained or
forced to lie on the floor of a vehicle for a transfer process of
between one hour and one day.
In some cases, they suffered prolonged exposure to the elements
and a lack of water, food or access to a toilet.
UNICEF said it found no evidence of any detainees being
“accompanied by a lawyer or family member during the
interrogation” and they were “rarely informed of their rights."
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