Shin Bet conceals scale of Palestinian detainees prevented from seeing lawyers

The case of six Arab minors being prevented from meeting their lawyers after being arrested on suspicion of involvement in the killing of a young Israeli has revealed how easily the Israeli police and General Security Service can deprive detainees of their right to obtain legal advice, even in the absence of clear suspicion of committing any security offenses.

An inquiry conducted by Haaretz newspaper found that preventing detainees from meeting with their lawyers is a widespread phenomenon in cases where Palestinians are suspected of security offenses, and that this phenomenon also involves detainees of Israeli citizenship.

Under the pretext of fear of harming Israel’s security, the state of Israel refuses to disclose information about the size of this phenomenon.

The case of the arrest of six minors in the murder investigation, who were all freed without charge, is not the only one where the security authorities had violated Palestinians’ right to meet a lawyer, a fundamental right of all detainees.

Arabs 48 news website reported that the Israeli police also recently arrested two Arabs from Israel who were taken in for interrogation on suspicion of committing security offenses. The police prevented them from seeing a lawyer with the approval of the court, after “a confidential report about the suspects” had been submitted to the Shin Bet.

But after ten days of investigations, it appeared that they were not involved in any security offenses, but instead in drug offenses. The public prosecutor presented two indictments against them based on their confessions before the Shin Bet investigators, and the police investigators then transferred them to a criminal indictment.

The Israeli detention law allows junior officers of Shin Bet and the security services to prevent detainees who are suspected of security offenses, including minors, from meeting their lawyers for ten days.

The Israeli law claims that what justifies this is the fact that meeting with a lawyer could disturb the arrest of other suspects and hamper collecting evidence, or effect the investigation in any other way, and that the prevention of such a meeting is required in order to thwart the implementation of a violation and to protect the lives of humans.

After the ten days come to an end, the police and the Shin Bet can submit a request to the district court to extend the detention for a further 21 days, during which time the prevention of the detainee from meeting his or her lawyer continues.

Meanwhile, attempts of Israeli human rights organisations have failed to obtain information about the scale of this phenomenon. In response to a petition in the Supreme Court, Arabs 48 reports that Shin Bet claimed this is an exception to the Freedom of Information Act and that “there are terrorist organisations that are concerned with obtaining this information”.