Palestinian man was tortured by Israeli prison authorities before his death, claims family

43-year-old Abdo Yusuf al-Khatib al-Tamimi, a resident of occupied East Jerusalem, was found dead in the notorious Israeli Moskabiya prison on July 23 with several injury marks on his body

July 28, 2021 by Peoples Dispatch
Photo : Twitter

Abdo Yusuf al-Khatib al-Tamimi, a 43-year-old Palestinian from Shuafat refugee camp in East Jerusalem was found dead in Moskabiya detention center on July 23, three days after his arrest. His family claims that his death was the result of torture and beatings by Israeli prison authorities.

The family members say that other detainees informed them of the beatings and torture. Al-Tamimi had no health-related complications prior to his arrest. 

Abdo al-Tamimi was arrested for a minor traffic violation and sent to Moskabiya detention center. He had four children and his wife is pregnant.

Al-Tamimi’s family claimed that the prison guards had objected to his shouting religious chants at the time of arrest. The guards separated him from the rest of the prisoners and sent him to an isolated cell where he was beaten and tortured. The family also released a series of photos on July 23 in which several serious wounds and signs of torture can be seen on his body.

The Israeli Prison Service announced a routine investigation into his death on July 23. However, even after five days, the result from the forensic lab where his body was sent for examination, has not been made public. 

The US human rights office in the Occupied Palestinian Territories expressed deep concern over al-Tamimi’s death. They asked the Israeli authorities to release the autopsy report and to conduct an independent and transparent investigation into his death. 

Israel is a signatory to the International Convention against Torture which it ratified on October 3, 1991. Despite being a signatory, Israel is often accused of torture of Palestinian detainees. According to Addameer, at least 73 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli prisons since 1967. 

As per Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI), more than 1,300 cases of torture have been filed against Israeli authorities since 2001. The Israeli courts, however, have been lenient about the complaints of torture and permitted the authorities to use it in prisons against potential threats to Israel’s security. That is the reason that so far, according to PCATI, only two cases have been investigated and no one has been punished, Al Jazeera reported.