2019-05-28

Ramallah

Human Rights Defenders / West Bank

The Military Prosecution Derogates from the Provisions of the Law

His Excellency the head of the Military Judiciary Commission, General Ismael Farraj,

Subject: The Military Prosecution Derogates from the Provisions of the Law and Neglects the decision issued by Your Side Regarding Enabling Adv. Wissam Hammad from Viewing and Copying the File of a Penal Complaint

MUSAWA – The Palestinian Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession extends its warmest greeting to your Excellency, recalling a memo sent to your Excellency on 25/11/2018 entitled “Violating the lawyer’s Right to Copy the Case File and Discharge his Professional Duty”, which was sent in response to a complaint filed with MUSAWA the lawyers, Wissam Hammad ad Mo’taz Shtaiwi, to which you responded in your letter no (3556) dated 27/11/2018, providing that the case was settled down with the two complainant lawyers. However, Adv. Wissam Hammad has filed another complaint with MUSAWA on 17/5/2019, including that he was not enabled to copy the file, and that the representative of the military judiciary is abstaining from enabling him from copying the file for the alleged confidentiality of the data included in the file, neglecting the truisms of the defense rights and the fair trial guarantees, and ignoring the decision issued by your side, by which you asserted your belief that defendants shall enjoy their right to defend themselves and copy the files of their cases, as those right shall be guaranteed for the parties of the penal action, especially the defendant party, as provided by the Basic Law and the Code of Penal Procedure according to the content of your letter, with which MUSAWA fully agrees. Based on your letter, the attitude of the military judiciary, as provided in the complaint, poses an impediment to the administration of justice, an infringement of the fair trial guarantees, a violation of the right of defense, and an abuse of power, the thing that requires accountability.   

MUSAWA hopes that you take the needed legal action in this regard, to refer the representative of the military judiciary, who took the decision of preventing the lawyer from copying the file, to the administrative investigation, and to issue the orders to enable the lawyers from discharging their professional duty of defense, to enjoy their right to communicate with their clients and copy the components of their files duly, hoping that you keep us updated with the action taken by your side in this regard.

With All Due Respect,

Issued on 28/5/2019

Legal Monitoring Officer

Adv. Angham Mansour

Attachments:

A copy of the memo sent to you on 25/11/2018

A copy of the Military Judiciary’s response issued on 27/11/2018 regarding the pre-mentioned memo.

A copy of the complaint of Adv. Wissam Hammad, MUSAWA’s defense counsel.