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Last update - 10:13 13/04/2008 Rights group: Shin Bet uses relatives to extract prisoners' confessions By Shahar Ilan, Haaretz Correspondent Tags: Shin Bet, Palestinians  The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel has accused the Shin Bet security service of using relatives of individuals under interrogation to extract confessions. In a report to be submitted Sunday to the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, the organization says the Shin Bet makes unjustified arrests of family members, or creates the pretense of such arrests to pressure suspects. The report further states that such methods are used against individuals who are already subjected to severe physical torture. In at least one case, the report states that the pressure led to suicide attempts by the individual under interrogation. Advertisement Attorney Aviel Linder, who compiled the report, noted that a series of international treaties prohibit psychological torture, including threatened or actual harm to family members. The report details six cases between 2007 and 2008, but says it knows of dozens of others. According to the findings, it is a common method of interrogation to psychologically abuse a detainee using family members, and that in most cases the interrogation was not a matter of a "ticking bomb." The report states that an interrogation using such harsh and improper means casts aspersions on the confession's veracity. In one case, the report states, "The Shin Bet threatened a subject named Said Diab that if he did not cooperate, his mother would be arrested. The next day he was brought to look through a peephole at his mother being aggressively questioned and crying." In the end, the committee says, the mother was indicted on a marginal charge to justify the false arrest. In another case, a couple, Jaser Abu-Omar and Hulah Zitawi, was arrested and held in extended detention while subjected to harsh physical torture, without letting them know the fate of their two daughters, aged two and six months. According to Zitawi, "They said my daughters were now orphans, without a father or a mother. They showed me a picture of me with my little daughter in my arms and they said I should pity her. The picture killed me. I wept until I could no longer stand it. They said that I would not see her again until she was a teenager and she would not recognize me. That was the picture that broke me." In a response to the committee, dated July 2007, the attorney general's office said: "In general, if a relative of a detainee is not in detention, and there is no legal reason to arrest the relative, the detainee should not be given the impression that the relative has been arrested." Nevertheless, the committee claims that the method is still being used. The chairman of the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, MK Menahem Ben-Sasson (Kadima), said, "It should not be forgotten that we are engaged in a war against terror. This reality does not authorize irrevocable physical harm, but it does require other actions - as needed, in a proportional and reasonable response." Bookmark to del.icio.us   Security.com Shin Bet is reaching out to English and Arabic worlds with new web sites. Obama's blunder As Penn. primary approaches, Clinton has latched on to 'values' remarks by Obama.   1.   This is exactly what I said about Shin Bet... 06:12  |  Silvienne 13/04/08   2.   we are at war, this is not a sandbox game. i see nothing wrong 07:36  |  ralph 13/04/08   3.   #1 - what means of interrogation would you suggest? 07:43  |  redmike 13/04/08   4.   So what`s new? 07:49  |  Palestinian Brit 13/04/08   5.   Terrorists forfeit all human rights. 08:20  |  Chaim 13/04/08   6.   Save the civilians..sacrifice the terrorists and their families 08:58  |  spade 13/04/08   7.   Relatives of Israeli soldiers terrorised by Hezb and Hamas 09:15  |  x-ray 13/04/08   8.   Destroy the terrorists. 10:24  |  Jean Van Daem 13/04/08   9.   Glad to hear it 10:53  |  Dreyfus 13/04/08   10.   "Occupation" and "state of law" = Not compatible 11:02  |  Swiss (Dino) 13/04/08   11.   Murderers deserve five-star hotels 11:05  |  Ovadia 13/04/08   12.   The Boy that cried WOLF, WOLF 12:42  |  Gil 13/04/08   13.   do you mean to tell me the invadrs who steal and kill 12:54  |  shocked!! 13/04/08   14.   #2, RALPH, god help you 13:02  |  VIPER 13/04/08   15.   #3, REDMIKE, hows this suggestion 13:04  |  VIPER 13/04/08   16.   Torture fuels terrorism 13:20  |  Eivind 13/04/08   17.   I always wondered why people should confess things which are 13:52  |  Andreas 13/04/08   18.   The good thing about this: Israeli police is not nice 14:00  |  Andreas 13/04/08   19.   OMG!!! He was shown a picture and decided 14:34  |  Lynn 13/04/08   20.   Silvienne...in the US the cops are allowed 14:56  |  Lynn 13/04/08   21.   Interrogation methods on Saddam 15:11  |  Aphemia 13/04/08   22.   Chaim - #5 You are fundamentally wrong 16:47  |  Philip 13/04/08   23.   Ralph #2, you see nothing wrong because it`s not your sister bein 16:48  |  Philip 13/04/08   24.   Lynn, the US is not a pillar of democracy and human rights 16:50  |  Philip 13/04/08   25.   #22 Philip. Your standard liberal pablum costs countless innocent 18:46  |  Chaim 13/04/08   26.   #3, redmike... 21:11  |  Silvienne 13/04/08   27.   #15, Viper... 21:14  |  Silvienne 13/04/08   28.   Chaim - You still don`t get it. How do we determine the innocent? 21:57  |  Philip 13/04/08   29.   #28 Philip. You ought to know that an innocent person is someone 00:26  |  Chaim 14/04/08   30.   #20, Lynn.... 03:21  |  Silvienne 14/04/08   31.   same thing in the united states 04:07  |  astounded at naivete 14/04/08   32.   #27, SILVIENNE, so sorry that 05:28  |  VIPER 14/04/08   33.   #20, lynn, finally something we agree on 05:32  |  VIPER 14/04/08   34.   #32, Viper... 06:05  |  Silvienne 14/04/08   35.   #23, Philip...to Ralph... 06:07  |  Silvienne 14/04/08   36.   What a modern democratic state does during war says alot about it 00:32  |  anti-racist 15/04/08   37.   SILVIENNE, always welcomed 10:03  |  VIPER 15/04/08   38.   #37, hello VIPER... 16:49  |  Silvienne 15/04/08

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