2019-05-30

Khanyounes

Human Rights Defenders / Gaza

His Excellency Attorney General, Diaa Al-Deen Al-Madhoun/Gaza,

Subject: Impunity Affects the Citizens' Right to Access to Justice

MUSAWA- The Palestinian Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession extends its warmest greetings to your Excellency, noting that the center has lately received a written complaint from Iyad Othman Shbeir, a 50-year old citizen from Khanyounes, stating that on 24/9/2018 he was attacked and beaten at his workplace by individuals believed to belong to Al-Qassam. The attack happened against a backdrop of a fight between children from Shbeir Family and Islayyem Family, whose son serves as an escort for a Qassam official. The complainant added that the attack took place in the middle of Khanyounes downtown and that he was taken to Naser hospital, where he underwent two operations, during which some platinum slides were placed in his right forearm and his right leg due to the compound fractures he had after the above-mentioned attack. 

In his complaint, the complainant added that his nephew, Othman Mohammad Shbeir, was physically abused by the same attackers. This time, the attack happened in his way back from school, where he was thrown on the ground and got stepped on his face and chest, and was beaten by electric cables on different areas of his body.

Moreover, the complainant added that on 21/9/2018, more than 40-armed individuals wearing official customs surrounded his house and arrested a number of his family members, including his son, who was arrested for 11 days without identifying the reasons.

On the other hand, the complainant noted that he addressed Khanyounes Police Station and the Attorney General’s Office since the first attack, but his case was ignored and he was never enabled to file his complaint with the police till the date of filing his complaint with MUSAWA.

MUSAWA believes that the complaint entails a serious violation of a series of constitutional rights, including the right to access to justice, and represents a flagrant violation of the rule of law principle as well as abuse of power, which contradicts with the law and requires accountability.

MUSAWA notes the provision of article 1 of the Penal Procedure Law clearly provides for "The right to file and conduct a penal action is vested exclusively in the Public Prosecution, and it shall not be filed by others except in those cases where the law provides otherwise", and that article 3 of the same law provides for “The Public Prosecution is held to set the penal action in motion if the injured party constitutes himself a civil claimant pursuant to the rules prescribed by law”, thus we ask your Excellency to take the needed legal action in this regard, to start the investigations into this complaint immediately, to hold the attackers accountable, and to guarantee the complainant’s rights to access to justice and justice, and to respond to our memo duly.

With All Due Respect,

Issued on 30/5/2019

MUSAWA

Attachments:

A copy of the complaint.