Israel court lifts prison secrecy

Israel court lifts prison secrecy

BBC News Online
2 December 2003

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3255396.stm

Israel's supreme court has ordered the government to release
information about a secret jail for "high-risk" inmates.

The government only recently admitted the existence of Facility
1391, an army detention centre dubbed "Israel's Guantanamo Bay" by
the Israeli press.

Palestinian prisoners have reportedly been held in disorienting
conditions and barred from outside contact.

Government lawyers said the location was an army secret, but inmates
had the right to meet their lawyers elsewhere.

Shai Nitzan, representing the government, said prisoners' rights are
safeguarded at the facility.

He said that the Red Cross can interview detainees off-site. They
are not allowed to visit the prison itself.

'Not in use'

The government says there are currently no prisoners being held at
the centre.

The detention conditions... are not proper for holding a human being
Hamoked, Israeli human rights group Mr Nitzan said it was used by
the Shin Bet internal security service primarily between April 2002
and March 2003 in order to relieve overcrowding at other jails.

The Israeli human rights group Hamoked, which brought the suit on
behalf of Palestinian former detainees, says inmates are kept in
unacceptable conditions.

"The detention conditions... are not proper for holding a human
being, and are liable to cause physical and psychological injury,
which may even be irreversible," the organisation said in its court
submission.

It also argued that keeping Facility 1391's location secret was
illegal.

The court condemned the prison for reportedly keeping inmates in
sub-standard conditions, but said prison conditions were not part of
its ruling.

The court gave the government 45 days to release information about
the facility.