Secret Detention Facility 1391: HaMoked files an application under the Freedom of Information Law for information concerning activity in the Facility

test 3 - sputnikA civilian, resident of the occupied territory who is not taking part in combat, is injured in the course of security forces activity and suffers bodily or property damages. He files a compensation claim against the state with a court in Israel. Israeli statute determines that the state is not civilly liable and is exempt from paying compensation if the damage was incurred in th...

In 2003, HaMoked: Center for the Defence of the Individual filed a public petition against the very existence of a secret incarceration facility in Israel, Facility 1391, located in a secret military base in central Israel. Testimonies gathered by HaMoked suggested that under the shroud of secrecy and in the absence of public and judicial scrutiny, detainees in the Facility were subjected to hu...

“Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants”, said American Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis. Publicity is one of the main guarantees for good governance. This is one of the reasons why judicial hearings are held in open court. This is one of the reasons why democratic judicial systems detest secret detentions and secret prisons. Brandeis’ famous quote does not appear in the judgment ...

After seven years, the HCJ rejects HaMoked's petition against secret prison 1391: the court creates a secret ruling, based on a classified "arrangement" and avoids directly addressing the issue of the facility's legality

Judgment in HaMoked's petition to order Israel to close down the secret prison, Facility 1391. The petition is dismissed. The justices accept the arrangement Israel has undertaken, substantively limiting use of Facility 1391 for the purpose of holding detainees. The details of the arrangement, mostly kept classified, determine, inter alia, that residents of Israel or the OPT will not be held in...

Human Right Watch urges the US government to conform the conditions in which it holds prisoners to international humanitarian law. Among its recommendations: denounce any kind of torture at any time; improve detention conditions; abolish the use of prolonged solitary confinement; disclosing the location of prisons and detention facilities inside and outside the US; enable regular visits by an a...

Details on cases waiting for review by the US Supreme Court regarding detainees held in military prisons, including the facility at Guantanamo, and discussion of the effects of these cases on international law and US domestic law.

HaMoked’s response to the state’s objection to the submission of the concluding observations of the UN Committee against Torture regarding Facility 1391 to the petition filed against it. HaMoked is bewildered by the state’s claim regarding irrelevance when the committee’s sessions addressed the exact subject matter of the petition. HaMoked stresses that the state’s representatives who were pres...

The state’s response to HaMoked’s request to submit the concluding observations of the UN Committee against Torture regarding Facility 1391 to the pending petition it filed against it. In a conceited and disrespectful response, the state objects to the submission of the document and oddly claims, inter alia, that the information HaMoked seeks to add is irrelevant to the petition as the committe...

The HCJ gave the State an extension of 21 days to respond to HaMoked's request to attach the concluding observations of the UN Committee against Torture: In its concluding observations, the Committee demands operation of the facility cease and those responsible for the torture and ill-treatment of prisoners be brought to justice

HaMoked: Center for the Defence of the Individual requests to submit the concluding observations of the UN Committee against Torture as an exhibit in its petition regarding secret prison facility 1391: In the concluding observations, the Committee demands operation of the facility cease and those responsible for the torture and ill-treatment of prisoners be brought to justice

Did Israel hold detainees from Gaza in the secret prison during the fighting? On 1 February 2009, HaMoked received the State Attorney's response to its enquiry

Five Lebanese men who were abducted by Israel are released: On 21 August 2006, HaMoked petitioned the High Court to order the Defense Minister and the General Security Service to explain the legal basis upon which they abducted the five men and why they continue to hold them. The petition also raised the fear that the five were abducted and held solely on the "suspicion" that they were related ...

At least two Lebanese detainees are currently being held in the secret facility: HaMoked contacted the state and demanded that attorneys on its behalf be permitted to visit the detainees immediately. HaMoked’s request was rejected by the state. At the same time, HaMoked requested that an urgent hearing be scheduled in the petition concerning Facility 1391; this petition still awaits a ruling by...

HaMoked lodged a supplementary notice for the upcoming HCJ hearing of its petition to shut down the secret prison, Facility 1391: in the past the state admitted the secret prison exists and that it concealed it from the public, but claimed this to be legal. In its arguments, HaMoked stresses that Israel's demand to continue operating the secret prison blatantly contrasts the outright disavowal ...

In a short judgment, the High Court of Justice denied two petitions against the decision not to investigate thoroughly complaints of Palestinians who were tortured and held in inhuman conditions during their interrogation in Facility 1391. Despite the severity of the acts, allegedly conducted in a secret and unsupervised facility, and notwithstanding other testimonies describing similar acts, t...

The High Court of Justice denied petitions against the decision not to investigate the complaints of Palestinians who were tortured and were held in inhuman conditions in the secret prison, where they were interrogated: The short and revolting judgment does not delve profoundly into the grave claims raised by the petitioners, and affirms the discretion exercised by the Attorney General and the ...