Prisoners not allowed to see lawyers with terrorist links

Prison managers will be permitted to stop such meetings for up to 72 hours, expendable by courts for one year.

By LAHAV HARKOV
Palestinian prisoners in Israel's Ketziot prison 311 (R) (photo credit: Ronen Zvulun/Reuters)
Palestinian prisoners in Israel's Ketziot prison 311 (R)
(photo credit: Ronen Zvulun/Reuters)
Jailed terrorists will not be allowed to meet with lawyers suspected of relaying messages from terrorist organizations to their clients, according to a law approved by the Knesset on Wednesday night.
The manager of a prison will be permitted to stop such meetings for up to 72 hours. The Prisons Service commissioner can extend the time period by another 24 hours, and a court can further extend it to a year.
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Knesset Interior Committee chairman Amnon Cohen (Shas) explained that “a new, balanced arrangement was necessary to allow, on the one hand, for the Prisons Service to gather intelligence needed to prevent meetings when necessary, and at the same time, give the prisoner his right to meet with his lawyer.”
The bill was proposed by the government, based on an increase in lawyers serving as middlemen between prisoners and terrorist organizations. It passed with 13 in favor and none opposed.