Israel 'routinely tortures prisoners'

Israel's Shin Bet security service tortures Palestinian prisoners during interrogations in defiance of a 1999 court ruling outlawing such practices, two of the country's human rights groups said yesterday.

Interrogators beat suspects, shackle them in painful, contorted positions and deprive them of sleep for long periods, according to the 96-page report,Absolutely Forbidden, by B'Tselem and The Centre for the Defence of the Individual.

The Justice Ministry said interrogations were carried out within the law and described the report as badly flawed.

Israel's Supreme Court outlawed in 1999 what the Shin Bet called "moderate physical pressure", such as exposure to extreme temperatures and tying up detainees in painful positions.

The new report is based on affidavits from 73 Palestinians who were detained between July 2005 and January last year.

One man, aged 29, identified as A Z, says his captors made him arch his back over a bench with his hands and legs joined in what prisoners call "the banana position". He says: "They brought a chain and used it to hook together the handcuffs and leg shackles. The way this made my body stretch was unbearable. Then the interrogators lifted the bench from both ends and dropped it suddenly ... I lost consciousness."

Despite the judicial ban, prisoners say in the report they were routinely physically abused.

B'Tselem's research director, Yehezkel Lein, the report's author, said it did not claim to provide a representative sample, but the testimonies provided a snapshot of the treatment regularly meted out to Palestinian detainees. "Like murder, rape and slavery, torture is a form of absolute evil that justifies the imposition of an absolute prohibition," the report says.