d Police Interrogations in Jerusalem

d Police Interrogations in Jerusalem

In December 1991, seven criminal charges were filed against ten policemen in the Police Minorities' Division, Jerusalem District. Those accused included the Head of the Division, the investigating officer of the Division, and other members of the investigation unit. All were operating from the Russian Compound prison ("Moscobiyeh") in the center of Jerusalem.

One of the recommendations of the B'Tselem report was to shorten the period in which prisoners are kept isolated, and to assure, through legislation, that prisoners be brought before a judge as quickly as possible after their arrest. We emphasized that the long period of incommunicado detention is one of the elements which allows for the ill treatment of prisoners.

In January 1992, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, through Attorney Dana Briskman, petitioned the High Court of Justice, to amend the arrest procedure practiced in the territories.³⁷ In the first section of the petition, ACRI demanded that prisoners be brought before a judge for extension of detention within a short time period to be stipulated by an order, not to exceed 8 days from the day of his arrest. ACRI claimed that the current practice, by which prisoners are brought before a judge within up to 18 days of arrest constituted "a severe, unreasonable, and unjustified infringement of suspects' basic rights." ³⁸
ACRI based its case, inter alia, on the Landau Commission report, which recommended that "the matter of extending detention be brought before a judge no more than eight days after his arrest". ACRI emphasized that although the government of Israel adopted the Landau report's recommendation on November 8, 1987, this recommendation was not implemented with appropriate legislation. ACRI quoted its correspondence with the Military Advocate General and the Attorney General, in which it requested that the Landau Commission recommendations to bring prisoners before a judge within 8 days be adopted. On July 21, 1989, the Military Advocate General responded that adoption of the Landau Commission's recommendations would be postponed for one year, due to the difficult situation in "the area". Nearly two years later, on April 15, 1991, the Head of the Military Advocate General's Office announced that the Ministerial Committee for Security Matters had decided to suspend implementation of the Landau Commission recommendations on this matter for an additional year.
ACRI emphasized that in Israel the police are required to bring a suspect before a judge no more than 48 hours from the time of his arrest. The period for detained minors is even shorter: 24 hours for minors age 14 and older, and 12 hours for minors between the ages of 12 and 14. ACRI added that the problem of security considerations in "the area" did not justify holding suspects in detention for 18 days without bringing them before a judge. The Landau Commission was also aware of the security consideration at the time, and despite this recommended shortening the period to 8 days. ACRI emphasized that since the security authorities were empowered to prevent a prisoner from meeting with his attorney, a situation could be created in which the prisoner is isolated from the outside world for a period exceeding 18 days, except for a visit with a Red Cross representative 14 days after his arrest.

The petition added that:

Bringing the prisoner before a judge following a short period of just a few days would most likely limit the prisoner's absolute isolation, and would lead to a review of his physical and psychological condition in a relatively early stage of his imprisonment, and would be a tool which would contribute to supervision and control over the interrogating authorities, during the critical period of the beginning of the suspect's interrogation.