Ramallah, 22 June 2010
On Thursday 27 May, Israeli State Prosecutors submitted an indictment against Ameer Makhoul, the General Director of Arab NGO network Ittijah, before the Haifa District Court charging him with assistance to the enemy in a time of war, conspiracy to assist an enemy, aggravated espionage, and contact with a foreign agent.
Ameer, 52, who was arrested from his home in Haifa on 6 May 2010, has informed his attorneys, Advocate Hussein Abu Hussein and Adalah lawyers Orna Kohn and Hassan Jabareen, that he vehemently denies these charges. According to Adalah, during Ameer’s initial, 12-day incommunicado detention and interrogation period “he was subjected to harsh interrogation methods by the GSS. Ameer stated before the Magistrates’ Court in Petakh Tikvah that severe interrogation methods had been used against him, which had caused him both psychological and physical harm, and as a result of which he had admitted under duress to false allegations made by the GSS interrogators regarding acts he did not commit.”
Adalah also reports that the illegal methods employed against Ameer during the initial days of his interrogation included “protracted sleep deprivation and continuous interrogation, while being shackled tightly to an under-sized chair that was bolted to the floor to prevent it from moving. His hands were cuffed to the back of the chair in a way that stretched his arms and shoulders sharply backward. His legs were folded backwards flanking the chair, with his knees turned toward the floor. When, after hours of being bound in this stress position while under intense interrogation, Makhoul complained of being in excruciating pain, the GSS interrogators proceeded to cuff his legs to the chair. They also threatened that he would be permanently crippled from the interrogation.”
Later in the day on 27 May 2010, Ameer was moved from Israeli Security Agency custody at Petah Tikva Interrogation Center to Gilboa Prison, which is located in the Bisan area inside Israel, where he remains at present.
Ameer’s wife Janan reports that she and her daughters, Hind, 17, and Huda, 12, were able to visit Ameer for the first time since his arrest at Gilboa on Sunday, 6 June 2010. Ameer’s family have been to visit him once a week since then, but have not been able to have an “open visit” with direct, physical contact with him during any of these visits. Janan said after the first visit that Ameer looked as well as could be expected and sent his thanks to everyone who is working so hard on his behalf. Ameer also voiced these thanks in a letter written from Gilboa Prison on 30 May 2010.
On 21 June 2010, Adalah sent a letter to prison authorities requesting that Ameer be granted an “open visit” with his wife and daughters on humanitarian grounds, as the whole family is suffering not only from the long separation without physical contact but also from the loss of both of Janan’s parents who passed away in the weeks around Ameer’s arrest.
On Sunday 13 June 2010, a preliminary hearing was held in Ameer’s case at the Haifa District Court before a three-judge panel. The next hearing is scheduled for 23 June 2010 at the court in Haifa.