Letter sent by Israeli Attorney Tamar Pelleg-Sryck to the Israeli Military Prosecutor after visiting Lebanese detainee Ali Banjak in Kishon detention center on November 4, 1996
According to lawyer Hasan Abu Ahmad, Ali Ahmad Banjak, a Lebanese citizen, was abducted by SLA intelligence operatives near Sidon, on August 15, 1996. Two days later he was taken to Israel by the IDF. Mr. Banjak's trial for membership in Hizballah, illegal military training, and assisting the launching of explosives against Israel, began in January 1997. Lawyers Tamar Pelleg-Sryck and Abu Ahmad visited Mr. Banjak and took an affidavit in which Mr. Banjak detailed the conditions of his detention and his treatment at the hands of his captors and interrogators. Tamar Pelleg-Sryck was retained as the attorney by HaMoked: The Center for the Defense of the Individual.
On the basis of Mr. Banjak's affidavit, Pelleg-Sryck submitted a written complaint to Colonel Daniel Be'eri, the Chief Military Prosecutor in the Judge Advocate's Office, describing Mr. Banjak's ordeal and asking for an investigation into the abuse. This complaint, dated November 4, 1996, was translated by Human Rights Watch and reproduced below with Attorney Pelleg-Sryck's permission.
Col. Be'eri responded on January 7, 1997 that, as Mr. Banjak's trial had begun and since Mr. Banjak had raised the issue of his ill-treatment in connection with his confession, any violation would be adequately dealt with in that court. Pelleg-Sryck responded on January 26, 1997 emphasizing the need for an investigation, independent of the trial, of the treatment of Mr. Banjak.
November 5, 1996
LB/209
To:
Colonel Daniel Be'eri
Chief Military Prosecutor
Judge Advocate's Office
David Alazar Street, #6
Tel Aviv
Subject: Interrogation under torture in a military base
Ali Ahmad Naim Banjak, Shatiyya village, Tyre region, Lebanon
The Mr. Banjak discussed herein, a resident of Lebanon, was kidnaped in Lebanon, transferred to the South Lebanon Army and then to the IDF. He also stated that he stayed for a period of thirty days in the military interrogation center in shameful conditions and was interrogated under torture there.
I recorded the testimony of Mr.Banjak in writing in an affidavit on November 4, 1996 in the Kishon detention center, at the request of HaMoked: The Center for the Defense of the Individual, in the framework of the program of this organization's struggle against torture.
Mr. Banjak authorized me to submit a complaint in his name regarding his interrogation. Attached is a photocopy of his signed power of attorney.
The following are the main points conveyed to me by the complainant:
1. Mr.Banjak was kidnaped on Thursday, August 15, 1996, and transferred to an SLA camp where on the following day he met an Israeli interrogator who identified himself as Yossi. On Saturday, August 17, 1996, Mr. Banjak was transferred to the interrogation center in an army camp in Israel, whose name-as told to him that day by an interrogator by the name of David-was Sarafand. David was his first interrogator. Also taking part in his first meeting with David were Eyal and George who identified himself as the "Director of the Mighty Torture Department [rosh makhleket ha'inuyyim ha'azim]." Later, Mr. Banjak met Abu Dani, who identified himself as the commander of the interrogation center. The interrogators wore civilian clothes. The guards wore army uniforms and were armed only with clubs.
2. After the first, above-mentioned meeting with the three interrogators, Mr. Banjak's head was covered with a sack and he was transferred, by a soldier, to a cell in which he was imprisoned alone.
3. The next day, on August 18, one of his interrogators informed him that his detention had been extended for fifteen days.
4. In the course of about ten days, the interrogation proceeded under threat of use of force and verbal insult, in addition to periodic slapping. In order to prevent the use of force he told partially fabricated stories about his past. After ten days he took a polygraph test and then he was transferred to George and Eyal.
5. His interrogation by George began with blows all over his body and spitting in his face. After this a soldier brought him to a tiny cell (about one meter by one-half meter) in which there was a bucket exuding a stench, inside of which was urine and excrement. Cockroaches, mice and dead mice were in the bucket and around it. They gave him a small blanket to cover himself. They would give him plates of unidentifiable food and four pieces of bread each day. At night, about every fifteen minutes (as he perceived it), a soldier wearing a gas mask would arrive. The soldier would put him in handcuffs and place a stinking sack on his head and bring him for a walk outside. During the day the soldier would bring him to be interrogated.
6. During this period they subjected him to what he refers to as "light torture," that is, only slaps by his interrogators or blows with a club to different parts of his body, including his testicles and forehead.
7. On August 31, 1996 Mr. Banjak was brought before a court where the prosecutor, dressed in civilian clothes, requested a one-month extension of his detention to complete his interrogation.
8. The torture regime, he states, began with his return from the court to Sarafand. He was brought at noon to the interrogation room where he stayed continually for eleven days and nights.
9. Every day at about 10 am the active interrogation would begin. He was questioned by George and Eyal. Throughout the interrogation he was held bound, seated in a ten-centimeter-high [about four inches] chair, directly facing a blinding light. They demanded that he hold his head up and that he look into the light. In this condition, he was questioned.
10. In addition to the curses, spitting and blows, his interrogators would make use of a device which was essentially a stick attached to the wall and positioned vertically from the floor. Mr. Banjak was forcibly hoisted onto this stick by his interrogators and then raised and dropped repeatedly. This exercise was repeated three times and caused him terrible pain to his genitals.
11. One day George grabbed his nose until he bled.
12. One day, his interrogators, who drank coffee during the interrogation, collected the remains of their coffee into one cup, added cigarette ashes, and George spit in it. Then, after forcefully prying open his mouth, George forced him to drink the mixture in the cup.
13. During this period Mr. Banjak was told that his family had been killed in a bombardment by the Israeli Air Force, he was shown photographs of his destroyed home and that of his neighbors which he later realized had been fabricated.
14. Apparently this story and the bouncing on the stick broke him spiritually and physically.
15. In a period of three days they fed him just an onion and one cup of water.
16. One day they threatened to photograph him with the Israeli flag and send the photo to Lebanon.
17. Mr. Banjak bore visible signs on his upper nose and back from blows he received. He also sustained pains in his legs and lower back.
18. Active interrogation took place for most of each day except for weekends. He was not interrogated during the remaining hours or on Friday or Saturday. During these breaks, he was left in the interrogation room in the same position, chained to a short chair and guarded by soldiers. Very loud music was heard in the room and he was not allowed to sleep.
19. On the seventh or eighth day of this period, the soldiers killed a mouse and tried to feed it to him. There were three people in the room. This took place during the night in the absence of his interrogators. Mr. Banjak began to scream. An official bearing a high rank on his sleeve arrived and spoke to his guards in Hebrew; they began to laugh and all but one left.
20. After these eleven days, he began to throw up blood. The doctor who was brought to check him reported that he was fine.
21. In Sarafand, they made him sign papers the contents of which he did not know. In the middle of September they sent him to Kishon detention center.
22. In the detention center he was placed for about a week in a cell with Palestinians, Lebanese and a Syrian. In retrospect, he concluded that they were collaborators with the Israeli interrogators. The Palestinians identified themselves as Abu Musab, Khaled, Manhal, Abu Wael and Ibrahim; the Lebanese as Sheikh Adnan and Yousef Shehadeh; the Syrian as Mohamed al-Batal. Adnan told him to write down his "story," including among other things the organization to which he belonged. If he did not do this, they told him, they would know that he was a collaborator with the Israelis and that he had come to collect information about them. They threatened to murder him. One of the Lebanese urged him to write down the full truth because this would help him to prove that he was not a collaborator back in Lebanon. The Lebanese added that he had done the same. Banjak complied.
23. From the collaborators cell he was transferred for interrogation in the Kishon detention center. There, Mr. Banjak was questioned by the same military interrogators from the army camp, George and Eyal, for the next twenty days. IDF interrogators arrived and brought with them photographs of bombs, missiles and views from Lebanon. They questioned him about all types of bombs and katyushas that are used to shell Israel.
24. On September 30 Mr. Banjak was brought before a judge to extend his detention, apparently in Acre.
25. In the police station in Acre he delivered his confession to the police.
On the face of these facts, Mr. Banjak was the object of brutal and shameful behavior on the part of the soldiers who served as his guards. His interrogators questioned him among other things, using methods which on their face constitute criminal offenses.