Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - Israeli court bans torture in police interrogations

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Tuesday, September 7, 1999

Israeli court bans torture in police interrogations
Some still say physical force should be allowed when deadly threat is thought to be imminent
By Mark Lavie
Associated Press

   JERUSALEM - Setting a landmark in Israel's decades-old conflict between democracy and security and between respecting human rights and protecting citizens from terrorism, the Supreme Court on Monday banned the use of torture in interrogations.
   The ruling came just one day after two car bombs went off, just the latest of dozens of attacks that have killed hundreds of Israeli civilians in recent years.
   Security agents will no longer be allowed to tie Palestinian suspects with their hands behind their backs to a rail under an air conditioner in the middle of winter.
   They will no longer be able to grab suspects from behind and shake them violently, a practice that led to the death of at least one Palestinian. They will no longer be permitted to force Palestinians into the dreaded "shabeh" position, bent backward over chairs, hands and legs shackled beneath, or be allowed to put a putrid, choking hood over their heads.
   Prime Minister Ehud Barak said in a statement that he respected the court's decision but that in order to save lives, we need to find a way" to extract information from a suspect about an impending attack.
   Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein suggested legislation outlining how far the Shin Bet, the security agency, could go in interrogations, but human rights activists said the Supreme Court would likely overrule any law that attempted to circumvent Monday's ruling, which came after a decade of hearings.
   Though they unanimously banned the practices, the nine Supreme Court justices noted that the state still has the right to defend itself. If the Shin Bet believes it must torture a suspect to reveal the location of a "ticking bomb," the torturer would be put on trial, but a court might accept the argument that physical force was necessary.

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