Government: No right to attorney for up to a year

By Dimi Reider December 13, 2010 | Edit

YNET reports this morning that the ministerial committee for legislation has voted that the government would endorse a bill allowing courts to deny “security” prisoners right to meet with their attorney for up to a year. Under current legislation, prisoners may be barred from seeing a lawyer for up to three weeks, although various tricks and chicanery sometimes allow security services go way over this time limit.

Still, the bill appears to both legitimise and sharply exacerbate an already unacceptable practice, and to delegate huge authority to prison service officials. Ultra-rightist Israel National News, which runs the report under the gleeful headline “Limits on legal advice for terrorists“, has more details on the exact timetable laid out in the bill:

“The prison manager may bar meetings of a period of up to 96 hours, instead of the current 24 hours; the Prisons Commissioner may, with the agreement of the State Prosecutor or one of his deputies, to extend the period to up to 14 days, instead of the current 5; the district court may order extending the periods for further periods [sic] of up to six months at a time, instead of the current 21, on the condition that all periods will not together exceed the period of a year.”

As of 2:30pm Israel time, the only comment comes from the Association for Civil Rights Israel (ACRI). In a press release by the organisation, attorney Lila Margalit explains:

“Existing legislation already allows the Prison Service and the prosecution – followed by the court – to prevent a prisoner from meeting a certain attorney for extended periods of time, when a suspicion arises the meeting would be used to commit criminal offences or significant breaches of prison discipline. These draconic instructions already allow for an excessive damage to the right of an imprisoned person to consult an attorney of his choice, based upon classified material and without due process.

Now the public security ministry seeks to loosen the reins even further, and allow for a completely inappropriate intervention in the activity of lawyers, even when there is no concrete suspicion of a particular offence. The bill also seeks to extend significantly the period for which these limitations can be imposed… and thus dangerously erode the few guarantees meant to prevent abuse.”

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TEST TEST GAL Our team has been devastated by the horrific events of this latest war. The world is reeling from Israel’s unprecedented onslaught on Gaza, inflicting mass devastation and death upon besieged Palestinians, as well as the atrocious attack and kidnappings by Hamas in Israel on October 7. Our hearts are with all the people and communities facing this violence. We are in an extraordinarily dangerous era in Israel-Palestine. The bloodshed has reached extreme levels of brutality and threatens to engulf the entire region. Emboldened settlers in the West Bank, backed by the army, are seizing the opportunity to intensify their attacks on Palestinians. The most far-right government in Israel’s history is ramping up its policing of dissent, using the cover of war to silence Palestinian citizens and left-wing Jews who object to its policies. This escalation has a very clear context, one that +972 has spent the past 14 years covering: Israeli society’s growing racism and militarism, entrenched occupation and apartheid, and a normalized siege on Gaza. We are well positioned to cover this perilous moment – but we need your help to do it. This terrible period will challenge the humanity of all of those working for a better future in this land. Palestinians and Israelis are already organizing and strategizing to put up the fight of their lives. Can we count on your support? +972 Magazine is a leading media voice of this movement, a desperately needed platform where Palestinian and Israeli journalists, activists, and thinkers can report on and analyze what is happening, guided by humanism, equality, and justice. Join us.

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