Center for the Defence of the Individual - Following a petition by HaMoked, the military police formulated and published a procedure for handling requests of an external party for the disclosure of investigation materials
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חזרה לעמוד הקודם
10.08.2010

Following a petition by HaMoked, the military police formulated and published a procedure for handling requests of an external party for the disclosure of investigation materials

On May 12, 2008, HaMoked petitioned the High Court of Justice (HCJ) regarding the unreasonable delays in delivering the investigation findings of the Military Police Investigations Unit (MIU) in cases in which Palestinians are harmed by the security forces. In the petition, HaMoked stressed that forwarding investigation findings to the victims and their families within a reasonable timeframe is an integral part of the victims' basic right to due process, especially if the incident is also subject to another pending legal proceeding. HaMoked further demanded the military police formulate a binding procedure for disclosing, within a reasonable timeframe, the investigation materials to the complainants and victims of offences, in whose matter the investigation has ended.

During the proceedings, held on December 10, 2009, the state agreed to formulate a written procedure defining the various conditions, including timeframes, for the disclosure of MIU investigation materials. In view of the circumstances and following the settlement of the individual cases included in the petition, the court deleted the petition, stipulating the said procedure should be formulated within three months.

On May 18, 2010, HaMoked received a procedure for "processing requests by external parties to review investigation material collected by MIU", "including, inter alia, definitions of the mode of acceptance of requests for investigation material; considerations for reviewing disclosure of the material and the process of its delivery to the requesting party. The procedure, formulated by the legal advisor to the MIU, stipulates that as a rule, MIU is to endeavor to complete the process of reviewing the requests within 75 days of their acceptance. If uncompleted after 90 days, the head of the investigation supervision department, shall inform the applicant as to the cause for the delay. Requests in cases liable to exceed the statue of limitations for criminal or civil proceedings, shall be handled "at the earliest possibility". Nonetheless, the procedure still stipulates that in a case which is the subject of another pending legal proceeding, MIU shall discontinue processing the request.