PRESS RELEASE
The Palestinian General Intelligence Services Arrest and Hold 15-Year-Old Boy
Ref.,: 22/99
Date: 1st March, 1999
For the 18th consecutive day, Palestinian General Intelligence Services continued to hold Bilal Yehya Al-Ghoul, a 15-year-old child and student in the third class of the preparatory school. At the time of this press release, the General Intelligence Services refused his family access to visit the child. His lawyers from the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) have also been denied access.
The child was arrested on the evening of Friday, February 12, from his house in Moghraqa, south of Gaza City. He was arrested by the General Intelligence Services, apparently in relation to the escape of his father from a Palestinian prison on December 11, 1998.
As legal representatives of the child, lawyers from PCHR addressed the Palestinian Attorney General’s office in a letter of February 22. In the letter, PCHR demanded the immediate release of the child and access to visit him in prison. PCHR also stated in the letter that the continued arrest of the child is illegal as he is detained with adults in the interrogation section of the General Intelligence Services and prohibited from seeing his lawyers. Such measures are regarded as illegal by Palestinian local law and international standards. At the time of this press release, PCHR had yet to hear from the Attorney General’s office regarding its communication.
On February 27, lawyers from PCHR sent a letter to the Palestinian Minister of Justice, Freih Abu Meddein, in yet another attempt to secure the immediate release of the child. PCHR, in an effort to put an end to this file immediately, calls upon the Palestinian Authority to adhere to the rule of law and to take the necessary measures to prevent such illegal arrests.
