Ref: 125/2020

Date: 01 December 2020

Time: 16:15 GMT

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) strongly condemns the assault on a lawyer at the General Investigation Service (GIS) in Ramallah. The lawyer was accompanying his client, who was arrested by the GIS for filing a complaint against a member of the Military Intelligence Service who assaulted him.  PCHR calls on the Public Prosecution to open a serious investigation into this assault and to allow for proper legal proceedings.

According to PCHR’s investigations, at approximately 19:30 on Sunday, 29 November 2020, members of the GIS came to Ibrahim al-Deek’s house in Kafr Ni’ma village, west of Ramallah, to arrest him, for a complaint he filed against a member of the Military Intelligence Service, who assaulted him on 27 November 2020. al-Deek’s cousin, lawyer and neighbor, Khaled Khaldoun al-Deek (24), knew that the GIS came to arrest Ibrahim and decided to accompany him, along with his father, Khaldoun al-Deek (47). Lawyer al-Deek stated that the GIS members attempted to force his client, Ibrahim, to delete a photo of the attacker’s vehicle on his cellphone, but his father Khaldoun intervened and refused; the GIS members assaulted him and pushed him out of the GIS office forcibly. Khaled added that: “When I saw my father being insulted, I told the officer: I am a lawyer, and I showed him my ID and Bar Association membership cards, but he continued to push my father out. I also told him that my father is a cancer patient and receives chemotherapy treatment, but they did not stop and continued to push him out. I was also attacked by other GIS members, they pushed and assaulted me. After that, they cornered me and an officer came and told me: I want to stomp on your head. He started beating me with both hands on my face, and I held by the GIS members. He then pulled me into a room inside the GIS service, pushed me hard onto the floor, handcuffed me, and started to beat me cruelly all over my body. The officer got out of the room for 2-4 minutes and returned to beat me again. After that, he was replaced by the officer in charge of the department; he pulled me to the corridor and beat me on my head. He told me: “you assault my officers and service members,” even though GIS officers told him that I did not attack any of them. He then took me to another room, meanwhile, the officer who first assaulted me came back and attacked me again while my hands were cuffed behind my back.”

PCHR renews its call upon the Attorney General to open a serious and speedy investigation into the assault against al-Deek and his client and to release its results to the public, and to hold those responsible accountable.

PCHR calls on security services that are responsible for law enforcement to stop the violation of citizens’ freedoms and rights and to respect the principles of human rights and the rule of law.

PCHR calls upon the Palestinian Prime Minister, Dr. Muhammad Shtayyeh, in his capacity as Minister of Interior, to take a firm and declared position against security services’ attacks on public rights and freedoms.