Prisoners face 'inhumane treatment' in Israel: Report

By Osama al-Ghassani

JERUSALEM (AA) - An official report on Sunday found that inhumane treatment of prisoners was widespread in Israeli prisons, according to The Times of Israel newspaper.

The report published by the Public Defense Office found that inmates were often kept in facilities "unfit for human residence" and sometimes faced illegal punitive measures.

According to the report, prisoners were being strip-searched without cause to suspect wrongdoing and without the inmates’ consent — as required by regulations — but purely as a punitive measure or “deterrent.”

The official report found that prisoners were tied to their beds for long hours or even days at a time as a punitive measure, citing the case of an inmate in need of medical care, who was tied by all four limbs to a bed for 38 hours at Ayalon Prison.

Other cases were cited at Eshel Prison and Givon Prison where prisoners were tied to their beds and having to defecate on themselves. In other cases, prisoners were tied with their hands above their heads.

The report said that some prisoners were held in solitary confinement in abysmal conditions, such as prison guards failing for six days to give them fresh clothes. On prisoner was sprayed with water and forced to stay in wet clothes for several days.