Israeli police have questioned about 20 prison guards as part of an investigation into the death of a Palestinian prisoner after alleged acts of violence, Israeli and Palestinian sources said on Thursday.
According to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, 38-year-old Thaer Abu Assab, from the town of Qalqilya, in the north of the occupied West Bank, died in November after being beaten by guards in the southern Israeli prison where he was being held. .
“This week, 19 prison guards were interrogated (…) and at the end of their interrogation they were released under restrictive conditions,” a police spokeswoman said.
The source added that the investigation related to “an alleged violent incident that took place about a month ago in a prison in the south of the country”, but declined to provide further details, citing the ongoing investigation.
A spokeswoman for the prison services declined to comment on questions from AFP.
According to Israeli media, the body of Thaer Abu Assab, a member of Fatah, the party of Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas, who was serving a 25-year prison sentence, was found in his cell.
According to the Israeli daily Israel Hayom, the results of the autopsy on the body could not determine whether the alleged violence of the prisoners was the cause of death.
But the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) said in a statement that the case “raises serious suspicions that the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) is being transformed from a professional incarceration agency into a vengeful and punitive force.”
“Six prisoners have already died in prison (…). All cases of abuse and death must be investigated immediately,” the entity added.
In an interview with Israel Hayom, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, from the far right, called for the presumption of innocence of prison guards to be maintained until the end of the investigation.
“We must not forget that our prison guards are dealing with human scum, murderers, who pose a security risk,” the minister told the Israeli daily.
Source: DN
