Palestinian Political Prisoner Ameer Makhoul: “I reject all allegations against me”

 “This legal proceeding is invalid and I reject all the allegations against me.” So stated Ameer Makhoul to reporters outside a Haifa courthouse in response to the indictment filed against him on 27 May for espionage, assisting an enemy at a time of war and maintaining contact with an enemy agent.

Taken from his home in the middle of the night on 6 May, Makhoul was incommunicado for the first twelve days of his detention – the Israeli General Security Services (GSS) did not permit him to meet with legal counsel or his family. Attorneys Hussein Abu Hussein, Hassan Jabareen and Orna Kohn, the latter two from the organization Adalah: The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, stated that during this time, violent interrogation methods were used against Makhoul to elicit a false confession. These included continuous interrogation, extended sleep deprivation, tight shackling and psychological pressure.

Until a partial gag order was lifted only today (27 May), Adalah was unable to publicly disclose the specific forms of torture and cruel and unusual punishment inflicted by the GSS on Makhoul.

“He is very exhausted and he told me about the torture he underwent in his interrogation,” said Makhoul’s wife Janan in an interview with Israeli radio. “Thirty-six hours without sleep tied to a chair stuck to the floor…done so he would confirm the Shin Bet’s claims against him.”

Makhoul’s brother Issam Makhoul, a former member of Knesset, told Israel Radio that when his brother was interrogated for his political protest activities during Israel’s December 2008-January 2009 military attacks on the Gaza Strip, he was told that if he persisted the authorities would frame him and make him disappear.

At the height of Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, on 7 January 2009, Makhoul was taken from his office of Ittijah: Union of Arab Community-Based Organisations by the GSS for interrogation. Approximately 1000 Palestinian citizens and residents of Israel were detained and interrogated by the Israeli authorities for exercising their legal right and moral duty to protest the Israeli attacks.

“Trumped-up accusations made in indictments have become alarmingly common practice in security cases in Israel,” noted Adalah. “They aim to justify the complete isolation and use of illegal methods of interrogation against detainees, and the imposition of gag orders on their cases.”

Video interview with Ameer Makhoul in April 2010, after Israeli authorities did not permit him to leave the country: