Israel Indicts Five Soldiers for Abusing Palestinian Prisoner in Negev Desert Jail

TEL AVIV — Five soldiers have been indicted by Israel’s Military Prosecution for causing “severe” injury to a Palestinian prisoner in a notorious Israeli jail, including “stabbing the detainee’s bottom” with a sharp object, which had penetrated near his rectum. The abuse against the Palestinian prisoner happened at the Sde Teiman detention facility in the Negev desert, where human rights organizations said torture of prisoners have taken place since October 7. The indictment charges the accused with “acting against the detainee with severe violence, including stabbing the detainee’s bottom with a sharp object, which had penetrated near the detainee’s rectum,” according to the documents viewed by The New York Sun. “For 15 minutes, the accused kicked the detainee, stomped on him, stood on his body, hit him and pushed him all over his body, including with clubs, dragged his body along the ground, and used a taser gun on him, including on his head.”The acts of violence have caused “severe physical injury to the detainee, including cracked ribs, a punctured lung and an inner rectal tear,” the indictment continued. The abuse took place on July 5 last year where the soldiers abused the detainee who had been blindfolded, and cuffed at the hands and ankles. The evidence collected in the course of the investigation was “extensive, and included medical documentation, and authentic footage extracted from the security cameras in place,” according to the IDF. The arrest of the five soldiers in late July last year caused huge controversy inside Israel, with far-right ministers and nationalists storming the army base where they were held. Later that day, hundreds of ultranationalists stormed the Beit Lid military base where the soldiers had been transferred to. The storming of military bases was widely condemned by the IDF chief of staff, then-defense minister Yoav Gallant as well as opposition lawmakers. Hundreds of terror suspects, including high-ranking Hamas members, have been detained at the Sdei Teiman facility after October 7. In September last year, Israel’s Supreme Court ordered the state to abide by Unlawful Combatants Law when treating the inmates in Sdei Teiman but fell short of ordering the facility closed. “Protecting the rule of law, even during a difficult war, is the clear expression of the difference between a democratic state, which is fighting for its life, and a terrorist organization which wants to destroy it,” then acting Supreme Court President Uzi Vogelman wrote at the time. The ruling came following a petition filed by Association for Civil Rights in Israel, Physicians for Human Rights, HaMoked, Public Committee Against Torture in Israel and Gisha — Center for the Protection of the Right to Move to shut down the facility. A quote from the former Supreme Court President Aharon Barak was included in the petition, saying: “Even those suspected of the worst acts of terrorism are entitled to detention at a minimum humane level, while ensuring basic human needs. We ourselves will not be humane if we do not ensure a level of humanity for the detainees in our custody.”

Israel Indicts Five Soldiers for Abusing Palestinian Prisoner in Negev Desert Jail

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