Petition: Arrest Olmert, Diskin for torture

Watchdogs say leaders have ignored High Court ruling banning the torture of Palestinian detainees.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Bethlehem arrest 224.88 (photo credit: AP [file])
Bethlehem arrest 224.88
(photo credit: AP [file])
A petition submitted to the High Court of Justice on Sunday calls for the arrests of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) head Yuval Diskin over their failure to stop alleged torture of Palestinian detainees. The appeal, made by The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, The Association for Civil Rights in Israel and The Center for the Defense of the Individual, maintains that the Shin Bet has defied a 1999 High Court ruling and continues to torture detainees as part of their interrogations. The petitioners demanded that the prime minister and the Shin Bet chief be incarcerated and fined in order to ensure that the court ruling is obeyed. "The government and the Shin Bet are in contempt of [the High Court]. We are looking at serious, accumulative, consistent and systematic contempt, which is anchored in directives and procedures," the petitioners said. "It therefore necessitates enforcement of the ruling by harsh and exceptional means."