Hamas MP: “No torture” claim by Fatah is false.

An MP representing Hamas in the Palestinian Legislative Council has claimed that the Palestinian Authority’s security agencies in the West Bank are still engaged in violence amounting to torture against political prisoners. According to Mohamed Mutlaq Abu Jehicha, “What has been reported in the media about the ending of torture in West Bank prisons is not true. There are up-to-the-minute personal testimonies and reports that prove the opposite.”

The MP claims that the security agencies have stripped naked political prisoners and put them in refrigerators, and make them sleep on the floor without mattresses or blankets in very cold rooms. Families report that many detainees still suffer from inhumane treatment.

Abu Jehicha believes that media reports and PA claims are “totally false – torture is still practiced in the PA’s prisons.” The case of one detainee, Shaher Abu Yahya Jehicha, was given as evidence; he was transferred yesterday to Alya governmental hospital in Al-Khaleel and is now in intensive care following what the MP calls “severe torture”.  

“The security services in the West Bank pass prisoners between them; as soon as a detainee is released by the intelligence service, for example, the preventive agencies arrest him,” added Abu Jehicha. He gave the example of Anwar Harb, a prisoner from Bitola village, who was released by the intelligence service only to be rearrested a day later by the preventive agency.

Abu Jehicha demanded that the media verify the stories coming out from the PA and not contribute by the lack of such verification to the concealment of the crimes committed against the Palestinians.

Source: Quds Press