Torture part of Gaza justice system

THE Hamas-administered criminal justice system in Gaza runs on arbitrary arrest, torture, unfair trials and other serious violations, a report examining its five-year rule of the tiny coastal strip has found.

Civilians are frequently tried in military courts in violation of international law, while prosecutors deny detainees access to lawyers, and support arrests without warrants and abusive interrogations, the Human Rights Watch report found.

The report documents how torture of detainees by Hamas security services has spread from internal security to general detectives and the drug squad.

And since Hamas took sole control of Gaza in June 2007, it has executed at least three men convicted on the basis of confessions obtained under torture.

''Former detainees … were afraid to describe what had happened to them in custody, even on condition that their identities would be kept confidential,'' the report found.

Men and women caught sitting together in cafes are targeted, as are youth activists and those demonstrating in favour of revolutions occurring elsewhere in the Middle East, said the report's author, Bill Van Esveld, senior researcher in the Middle East division at Human Rights Watch. ''We have seen this sort of behaviour in other countries - in Egypt, it used to be the Internal Security Service that was guilty of torture, then it began to spread to everyday police stations.

''Now is the time when it is going to metastasise, and it is up to Hamas to root it out.''

There are two major contributing factors to the situation on the ground in Gaza - the split between Fatah and Hamas, and the Israeli-imposed blockade, Mr Van Esveld said.

''The intra-Palestinian political rivalry remains a significant factor behind many Hamas abuses.

''It is not just an issue of some security officials beating people up, there is a supporting apparatus. There is the prosecutor who signs the order saying you can keep this person in detention and not allow them to see their lawyer for 10 days, then 10 more days … and that warrants can be issued retroactively.''

The Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority in the West Bank also arrests and detains Palestinians arbitrarily, including Hamas members or sympathisers, subjecting detainees to torture and abuse, the report found.

When Hamas expelled Fatah from Gaza, it created a parallel judicial body that appoints judges without PA presidential approval.

Human rights groups in Gaza, like the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, consider the courts in Gaza to be illegitimate and have refused to represent detainees in a system in which they have no faith. Instead, they monitor trials and report allegations of arbitrary arrest and abuse in detention to Hamas authorities.

''There is no longer any independent judiciary in Gaza,'' the deputy director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, Hamdi Shaqqura, said. ''We tried very hard to make sure that the split between Fatah and Hamas did not spill over into the judiciary, but we failed.''

And despite threats against those working in the legal system - several lawyers interviewed by Human Rights Watch said they, too, had been tortured by the security services - lawyers continue to advocate for their clients and lobby for an end to the death penalty, Mr Shaqqura said. ''Our voice is loud and clear - we are against the death penalty and see it as a severe human rights violation.''

Hamas did not respond to calls from The Age for comment.