PRESS RELEASE

Preventative Security Services Illegally Detain 14-Year-Old Palestinian Boy

 

Ref: 6/99

Date: 14^th January 1999

For the 50^th consecutive day the Preventative Security Services continued to arrest Yasser Allan Wahidi (14 years old from Jabaliya Camp) without due process as required by Palestinian law. PCHR is closely following the child’s case. On behalf of his family, lawyers from PCHR representing the boy sent a letter to the office of the Palestinian Attorney General on December 8, 1998 requesting his immediate release. Almost a month after this letter, the office of the Attorney General informed PCHR that the child had been arrested by the Palestinian Preventative Security at its discretion.

PCHR expresses its deep concern over the brief and illegal response of the Attorney General’s office. According to Palestinian law all detainees are to be under the sole responsibility of the Attorney General himself and there is no other authority exercising such a responsibility. PCHR considers that the response of the Attorney General’s office provides a legal cover to illegal arrests carried out by Palestinian security forces which is by itself more dangerous than the actual illegal arrests. It is the first time according to our documents that the office of the Palestinian Attorney General has provided such a justification for illegal arrests.

It is also clear to us that the office of the Attorney General has not investigated the case or paid sufficient attention to the concerns outlined in the letter from PCHR as PCHR lawyers who managed to visit the child Wahidi testified that he is held with adult detainees in yet another violation of the law.

Also worth noting is that the office of the Attorney General has been vacant since the resignation of Mr. Fayyez Abu Rahma, the previous Attorney General, in May 1998. This vacancy has dangerous implications for the system of justice and rule of law in areas under Palestinian authority.

PCHR demands the immediate release of the child Wahidi and considers his continued arrest as a grave breach of Palestinian law.

 

 

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