Israeli Supreme Court on Torture

[Menachem Hofnung]

I read yesterday's discussion with reference to Israel and thought I can
help those who are interested in reading more on our sad experience. The
leading court case on this matter was given by the Israeli Supreme Court
in 1999. It is one of the handful decisions that were translated to
English. You can read the translated decision at the Israeli Supreme Court
website at:
http://207.232.15.135/mishpat/html/en/system/index.html

In that case the Court declared the policy of using torture as routine
interrogation technique as illegal. However, if you read the decision
carefully, you can see that the ban is not total and the Court leaves some
room for discretion in extreme cases. I tend to believe that the current
situation is interpreted by the Executive as justifying extraordinary
measures.
If you are unable to read it, reply to me personally and I will send the
decision.
Menachem

--
Dr. Menachem Hofnung
Department of Political Science
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Jerusalem 91905, Israel

<msmh at mscc.huji.ac.il>

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