Ref: 49/2014
Date: 14 May 2014
Time: 11:30 GMT
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) calls upon the Attorney General in Gaza to initiate an investigation into the death of Saleh Mesleh ‘Atiya Abu Hashish (33) in Beit Lahia detention facility in the northern Gaza Strip this morning. PCHR calls also for publishing the investigation’s results.
According to information collected by PCHR from the family, at approximately 07:00 on Wednesday, 14 May 2014, the family of Saleh Mesleh ‘Atiya Abu Hashish (33) was informed about his death while he was in Beit Lahia detention facility. In addition, his corpse was taken to Shifa Hospital in Gaza City to be examined by a coroner to identify the causes of his death.
The family said to a PCHR fieldworker that Abu Hashish, who is a former officer of the National Security Forces, married to two women and has 6 children, was arrested by the Anti-Drug Service about 27 days ago. Abu Hashish was arrested several times on the charge of drug dealing. The family added that they visited him yesterday in the abovementioned facility and he was fine.
The deceased’s family pointed out that they received the corpse from Shifa Hospital without allowing doctors to do the autopsy. Sources at the Forensic Department believed that Abu Hashish died due to a heart attack and that he died at approximately 02:00 on the same day, according to external examination.
On its website, the Ministry of Interior in Gaza posted that the detained “S. H.” (30) died today morning and that an investigation was initiated. Moreover, the corpse was examined by a coroner who confirmed that he died because of a “heart attack”.
In view of the above, PCHR:
