The Court ordered the military and the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) to respond to a petition filed by HaMoked and explain why the IPS does not record the facility in which detainees are held and the destination to which they are transferred in real time: This following a Habeas Corpus petition filed by HaMoked in order to reveal the whereabouts of a detainee who had been transferred from the Kishon prison to an unknown destination. The IPS did not notify the detainee’s family and made no record of the transfer, contrary to requirements

On 16 October, 2007, HaMoked – Center for the Defence of the Individual filed a Habeas Corpus petition after a detainee who had been held at Kishon prison was transferred to a different location five days earlier without notification being given to his family or any other party. In a letter dated 16 October, 2007, close to a week after the detainee “disappeared”, the military police control center, a military agency charged by the State with providing information regarding the whereabouts of detainees, said that they had not succeeded in locating the detainee and were conducting further examinations to do so. 

In its petition, HaMoked clarified that the authorities were obliged to notify of a person’s detention and whereabouts, as such notification is the basic right of the detainee and his family. A governmental system which hides people and makes them disappear is a cruel apparatus which causes grave harm to the detainees’ dignity and humanity as well as their families’. In addition to locating the detainee, HaMoked requested the Court for general relief in the form of ordering the military and the IPS to explain how a detainee disappears off the computers and what steps are being taken to prevent these cases from reoccurring.  

On 17 October, 2007, the State Attorney’s office notified HaMoked that the detainee was being held at Ohalei Kedar prison. HaMoked refused the State Attorney’s office request to delete the petition and requested the Court compel the State to respond to the demand for general relief. The Court accepted the request and ordered the Respondents to submit their reply. 

To view the letter from military control center from 16 October, 2007 (Hebrew) 

To view the HaMoked’s request from 18 October, 2007 (Hebrew)