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UK tortures Palestinians by proxy

Press TV – January 25, 2011

The British government is complicit in torturing political prisoners detained and jailed in the occupied West Bank by the Palestinian Authority (PA), a senior British officer said.

The officer, James MacInnis is charged with training the PA’s top security officials as part of a plan to provide assistance and financial support to PA agents in arresting and torturing members of the Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas.

MacInnin admitted to the British role in torturing Palestinian prisoners after an Arab organization for human rights in London revealed that the PA has been torturing prisoners affiliated with Hamas for years.

Torture techniques used in PA prisons included shabh (hanging) of all kinds, beatings with cables, pulling out nails, suspension from the ceiling, flogging, kicking, cursing, electric shocks, sexual harassment and the threat of rape, according to the report.

At least six Palestinians have died under torture in PA prisons and many former detainees have permanent physical disabilities, the report found.

The human rights organization said that it has documented such “crimes” for three years, from October 2007 to October 2010.

During that period, the report said, PA security forces in the West Bank detained 8, 640 Palestinians at a rate of eight arrests per day.

“Every one of those detainees has been subject to humiliating and degrading treatment, and stayed in cells for more than 10 days,” the report said. “The analysis shows that an astonishing 95 percent of the detainees were subjected to severe torture, others feeling the detrimental effects on their health for varying periods.”

The report also found that 77 percent of those who had been detained by the PA security forces had been arrested in the past by Israel.

Representatives of the organization met with victims, or their relatives, and distributed a questionnaire, in secret, to detainees who were held in PA prisons.

“Men and women from all sectors of Palestinian society have been subject to arrest and torture,” the report noted. “These include students, workers, teachers, doctors, engineers, university professors and lawyers.”

January 25, 2011 - Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation, Subjugation - Torture, Timeless or most popular, Wars for Israel

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