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Official stats: ‘All prisoners jailed by Israel were tortured'

June 27, 2016 at 11:00 am

PLO’s Prisoners and Freed Prisoners Committee said yesterday that “all prisoners jailed by Israel were tortured,” including women, the elderly and children, Quds Press reported.

In a statement, Abdul-Naser Ferwana, the director of studies and documentation department at the committee, said that Israeli torture aims to “harm prisoners physically and mentally.”

The statement, which marked the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, said: “Israel is the only state which legalised torture inside its prisons and protected its perpetrators from any legal measures.”

“Torture is an official Israeli policy as it is systematically practiced against the Palestinian prisoners. It is part of the daily life of the Palestinian and Arab prisoners inside Israeli jails. It is used whenever the Israelis want and it is practiced against prisoners of all ages.”

Ferwana reiterated that everyone who has ever been arrested by the Israeli forces was tortured. “This means that 100 per cent of people who were imprisoned were tortured either verbally or physically,” he said.

He also said that documented statistics show that 71 prisoners had been killed because of torture inside Israeli jails since 1967. In addition, he said, scores died after a few months or years of their release from the effects of torture.

Many others, he said, are suffering chronic diseases or disabilities due to the torture or mistreatment they suffered in jail.