http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1073830.html
Last update - 19:34 25/03/2009
Rights group: Hamas tortured Gaza inmate to death
By Reuters
Tags: Gaza, Israel News, Hamas
The Hamas-run police force in the Gaza Strip said on Wednesday it was
investigating the death of a prisoner after a Palestinian human rights group
said the inmate was tortured and beaten to death during interrogation.
The Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR) said one of its
researchers had seen marks on the hands and legs of the inmate, Jamil Assaf,
indicating he had been tortured in jail.
Assaf was detained by police on March 9 and died in Gaza's main hospital
on Tuesday. The ICHR said he was suffering from kidney failure after a beating.
Assaf's death was the second of a prisoner in a Hamas jail in Gaza this
month, the ICHR added.
Islam Shahwan, a police spokesman in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, said
police were investigating Assaf's death.
"If it was proven that Assaf died as a result of torture, those proven to
have been involved in the incident will suffer maximum punishment," Shahwan
said.
In its annual report last Thursday, the ICHR said Hamas-run security
forces in the Gaza Strip and those loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah
faction in the West Bank have tortured prisoners.
The two rival movements have said standing orders prohibit the
mistreatment of detainees. Hamas Islamists wrested control of the Gaza Strip
from Fatah forces in 2007.
<<0.gif>>
<<tag_arrow1.gif>>
