PRESS RELEASE
Palestinian General Intelligence Releases the Youth Bilal Yehya Al-Ghoul after Twenty Days in Detention
Ref: 28/99
7th March 1999
On Tuesday 2nd March at 11:30am, Bilal Yehya Al-Ghoul (a 15 years old student in his third year of preparatory school), was released after 20 days of detention in the General Intelligence premises.
On 12th February 1999, Bilal Al-Ghoul was arrested by General Intelligence Forces after his father Yehya El-Ghoul escaped from the central prison in Gaza on 11th December 1998. The arrest of the youth was an attempt to pressurize the escapee to give himself up.
After his release, Bilal Al-Ghoul reported that he was subjected to torture and beating throughout the twenty days of his detention by the General Intelligence.
On 22nd February 1999, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights sent a complaint to the Palestinian Attorney General asking for the immediate release of the child and to allow him to receive visits. The Centre considers the detention of the child in the interrogation department of the General Intelligence and preventing his family to visiting him is in contradiction with Palestinian law and international human rights standards. Until now, the Centre has not yet received a reply from the Attorney General regarding its demand for the release of El-Ghoul.
It is worth mentioning that the Centre issued on 1st March 1999 a press release asking the Palestinian National Authority to take all the necessary measures to prevent the security forces from carrying out such illegal arrests and to commit itself to the law in this regard.
PCHR expresses its deep concern about the arrest of a child less than 18 years of age. It encourages the Palestinian Authority to stop making such illegal arrests, considering that the Palestinian General Intelligence had also arrested Bilal’s cousin, Amran Omar Mahmoud El-Ghoul (16 years old and a student in the first year of secondary school) in relation to the same incident on 24th February 1999.
For More Information Contact:
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
Tel/Fax: (+) 9727 2824776/2823725
E-mail: [email protected]
Trial Version
