Center for the Defence of the Individual - After the rejection of three judicial reviews and their appeals: the military revokes an incarceration order against a Gaza Palestinian, issued under the Incarceration of Unlawful Combatants Law
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14.02.2011

After the rejection of three judicial reviews and their appeals: the military revokes an incarceration order against a Gaza Palestinian, issued under the Incarceration of Unlawful Combatants Law

On November 21, 2003, the military detained a Gaza youth, interrogated and later indicted him. The indictment was amended in a plea bargain, and he was convicted upon his admission. The plea bargain included a sentencing agreement on a six year prison term with an additional suspended sentence, and a fine. He served his sentence and was to be released on August 8, 2009. However, three days ahead of the release, the military issued an incarceration order against him, under the Incarceration of Unlawful Combatants Law. The order stated that there was reasonable cause to assume that his prison release would harm state security.  

A District Court judge presided over the judicial review of the case, and upheld the incarceration order – based on classified information which he alone viewed. HaMoked appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing that the extended period since the initial arrest had direct bearing on the incarceration order's proportionality, which serves as the basic guiding principle for the revocation of such orders – the Supreme Court had already ruled in the past that extreme care must be taken in issuing an incarceration order under the Incarceration of Unlawful Combatants Law, against someone who had been legally convicted and completed his prison term. HaMoked added that the type and essence of the evidence had not been disclosed to the detainee, thus leaving him incapable of addressing them. Furthermore, the court previously established that: "for the purposes of long-term incarceration under the Incarceration of Unlawful Combatants Law, satisfactory administrative evidence is required, and a single piece of evidence about an isolated act in the distant past is insufficient".   

Nonetheless, HaMoked's appeal was rejected by the court. The District Court judicial review and the Supreme Court appeal occurred twice more. Each time, the appeal was rejected based on "continued menace" on the detainee's part. The last court judgment was rendered on September 14, 2010.

On February 10, 2011, HaMoked received a curt military document, announcing the cancelation of the order as of February 17, 2011 – without details, explanation or cause. 

HaMoked reiterates its principle arguments regarding the legality of the Incarceration of Unlawful Combatants Law, which violates the rights to liberty and dignity, entrenched in Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty, and is also incompatible with the principles of international humanitarian law.

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