PA opens investigation into death of Gazan in West Bank prison

The Palestinian Authority’s Public Prosecution opened an investigation into the death of a Palestinian youth from the Gaza Strip inside its prisons in the occupied West Bank, a statement said today.

Mahmoud Rashad Al-Hamalawi, from Gaza, was arrested on 18 March in the occupied West Bank by the Palestinian protective security agency, a statement issued by his family said.

“He was kidnapped from his home by a group of security agency personnel headed by Ahmad Hasib Sobhi Atiyeh from Beit Rima and he was brutally beaten by them in the head and in other places around his body while they dragged him naked out of the house,” the statement said.

“The gang continued beating him in front of passersby, put him in a car – whose number plate we know – and took him to the police in Ramallah,” the statement added.

According to the statement, the security staff filed a complaint against him, accusing him of initiating a confrontation with them “before they carried out their crime, but this is untrue.”

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Then, he was transferred to the prison of Betonia, while complaining from sever pains, the statement added.

“He asked to see a doctor, but the police refused and he died last Wednesday, according to the police station,” the statement explained.

The Public Prosecution in Ramallah said that it checked his corps and took all the needed legal measures to discover the reason for his death after demands from rights groups, stressing that the investigation’s results would be announced once it is complete.