2021-07-18

Gaza

Gaza / Core Program / position paper

H.E. The Chief of the Military Judiciary

The respected Brigadier General Nader Abu Suleiman - Gaza

Subject: Delayed justice is a waste of it and a violation of guarantees and access of fair trial

Security interference undermines the independence of the judiciary.

MUSAWA - The Palestinian Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession, greets you. The center has received a written complaint from the lawyer: Hussam Al-Hafni, in his capacity as the representative of the detainee, at the al-Kateeba Correction and Rehabilitation Center: Muhammad Musa Shnaywra.

In his complaint, the complainant stated that the detainee and others were charged with “Undermining the revolutionary unity” (which is a general and loose term that may be used to undermine the citizen’s constitutional rights to express opinion and participate in public political life in accordance with Article 26 of the Basic Law, which is marked by the label of unconstitutionality (. He added that all those arrested with his client were released in conjunction with the announcement of the holding of the general elections with the exception of him, as the court looking into the charge against them rejected all requests for his release on bail submitted by his lawyer, claiming that the security authorities refused to release him despite the passage of two years since his arrest and despite the length of the trial procedures that are still pending hearing the evidence of the Military Prosecution.

We, MUSAWA - The Palestinian Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession,” see, as an independent, civil watchdog, the allegations contained in the complaint of the attorney-at-law to MUSAWA, appended to his signature and acknowledgment that his client bears the responsibility that may result from the invalidity of his complaint, as a flagrant violation of the independence of the judiciary, the essence of justice and the guarantees of a fair trial. Also, MUSAWA expresses its astonishment and surprise from the court’s reliance, in accordance with the complaint, on the opinion of the security services and their enforcement of that opinion as a reason for the repeated refusal to release the detainee, recalling that the security services, as a judicial officer, have no connection with the case file since the accused was referred to the prosecution, and they are the ones that give explanations to the court and present evidence that may prevent from its view is releasing the accused, and the court decides in this regard on the basis of the law in a manner that does not violate the basic rights of the accused, including but not limited to that detention is not a punishment, and that the length of the litigation procedures contradicts the principle of prompt justice and falls under the umbrella of denial of justice and the absence of trial guarantees of justice and transgression of the philosophy of the law of Criminal Procedures, which considers freedom as a rule and arrest as an exception.

Accordingly, we ask you to take the legal requirement and release the detainee in observation of the principle of equality, especially since all other detainees on the same charge have been released and in accordance with the rules of case management, obligating the Public Prosecution to provide all the evidence it has in order to ensure the speedy consideration and adjudication of the case in accordance with the law and conscience, and to inform us of the measures taken to properly handle this complaint.

With all due respect,

Issued on: 18/07/2021

Enclosed:

A copy of the complaint and its attachments.

MUSAWA