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| By: Associated Press |
| Published: March 15, 2006 |
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A human rights lawyer described an Israeli prison system that uses abusive interrogation techniques - including a cell so tiny it's called "the cupboard" - to illicit confessions from Palestinian detainees accused of taking part in terrorist activities.
The lawyer, Jonathan George Kuttab, testified for the defense in a pretrial hearing connected to a terrorist money-laundering case. Defense attorneys are seeking to bar confessions defendant Muhammad Salah made after being arrested in Israel in 1993, but federal prosecutors want to use the statements as evidence against him.
The hearing, which last week featured Israeli agents testifying under disguise and fake names in a closed courtroom, is to help U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve determine whether to allow the confession.
Salah, 53, is charged with laundering money for the Palestinian militant group Hamas. He was born in Jerusalem and moved to the United States in 1970. He is a naturalized citizen who has long lived in a Chicago suburb.
Salah's lawyers argue that his statements to members of the Israel Security Agency were made after he was beaten, deprived of sleep and forced to wear a foul-smelling hood.
Federal prosecutors say Salah's statements were made voluntarily and meet the standards imposed by the American justice system for evidence used at criminal trials.
They also sought to discredit Kuttab's testimony by demonstrating that he never had interviewed Salah, questioning the veracity of a newspaper article he wrote, and reading some of his past statements on Palestinian attacks on Israeli military targets not meeting the definition of terrorism.
The Jerusalem-based Kuttab is a Palestinian Christian who co-founded Al-Haq, a group that investigates and documents reports of abuse of Palestinian prisoners classified by Israel as taking part in hostile terrorist activities.
Some of the techniques Kuttab mentioned were similar to methods Salah's defense claim he was subjected to. They include urine-soaked hoods being placed over prisoners' heads and prisoners being handcuffed in awkward positions to tiny chairs on which the legs are uneven, pitching the inmate off balance.
He also said prisoners were - after long periods of isolation - sometimes led to believe they have been released to the general prison population. There, prisoners working with Israeli agents first befriend the prisoner, but then turn on him, accuse him of betraying the Palestinian cause, and often threaten to kill him, Kuttab said.
This treatment, by men labeled "the birds," sometimes leads to a confession when other methods do not, Kuttab said.
On cross examination, federal prosecutors attacked Kuttab's testimony. He admitted he never had witnessed an Israeli interrogation session, seen a videotape of one or interviewed Israeli security agents, although he stressed that the process is not open to defense attorneys.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Reid Schar said prosecutors have a 5-hour audiotape in which Salah is heard joking with his interrogators.
Kuttab said he had not heard the tape, but it likely would not have prevented him from testifying for the defense because interrogations can go on for weeks.
"The end result is always the same - to break your will and force you to sign a confession," Kuttab said.
The defense is scheduled to continue its case Wednesday morning, and more hearings are scheduled for April, when other witnesses are available.
The prosecution rested its case in the hearing Tuesday afternoon after providing some Salah financial data.
Prosecutors also presented an FBI agent who interviewed an official at the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem. The consular official had met with Salah several times while he was in jail and said Salah did not show physical signs of mistreatment, according to the agent.
Salah was on what he described as a charity mission when he was arrested in Israel in January 1993. He pleaded guilty in 1995 to helping to funnel $650,000 to Hamas and served nearly five years in an Israeli prison before returning to the Chicago area.
His trial is set for October. |
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