17 June 1996

PALESTINIAN HIGH COURT DEMANDS EXPLANATION FROM ATTORNEY GENERAL

DEMONSTRATION IN RAMALLAH FOR DR. SARRAJ'S IMMEDIATE RELEASE

On Sunday 16 June the Palestinian High Court, in response to the petition submitted by lawyers for Dr. Sarraj, demanded an explanation from Attorney General al Qidra for the continued detention of Dr. Eyad Sarraj, Commissioner General of the Palestine Independent Commission for Citizens' Rights. The High Court is asking for an explanation as to why Dr. Sarraj's detention was extended for an additional 15 days (for supposedly striking a police officer while under interrogation), why he was arrested on drug charges on 9 June (charges which were subsequently dismissed by the Magisterial Court), and the reasons behind his previous arrest on 18 May. The Court has given al Qidra five days in which to respond.

Attorneys for Dr. Sarraj, Khader Shkirat from the Land and Water Establishment and Raji Sourani from the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, presented arguments in support of the petition. The petition demanded the immediate release of Dr. Eyad Sarraj, on the grounds that his continued detention was unlawfully extended by the State Security Court. According to Mr. Arafat's decree which established this court, the State Security Court does not have the jurisdiction to hear criminal cases. The civil court is responsible for hearing criminal cases, but Attorney General Al Qidra arbitrarily withdrew the case from the civil court and moved it to the State Security Court. Thus the State Security Court's decision is unlawful, and Dr. Sarraj's continued detention illegal.

This is not the first time that cases have been transferred from the civil court to the State Security Court. A murder trial was recently transferred from the civil courts in the West Bank to the State Security Court, again in violation of the State Security Court's mandate. This represents a dangerous trend in the continued decline of the Palestinian legal system - more and more cases are improperly referred to a military-style tribunal owing its loyalty to Mr. Arafat, and away from the more independent civil courts which legally hold jurisdiction over these cases. The trend seems to be that Mr. Arafat is distancing himself from traditional concepts of the rule of law.

DEMONSTRATION IN RAMALLAH

On 17 June several members of Parliament and about 200 people, representing some 60 NGOs, gathered in Ramallah at the El Birreh Municipality building to protest the arrest and continued detention of Dr. Sarraj, to call for his immediate release, and to demand that the Palestinian Authority respect the basic principles of human rights and free speech. Parliament members Hanan Ashrawi and Kadoora Faris were present at the peaceful demonstration, which lasted about two hours. Palestinian police briefly tried to stop the demonstration, but then offered no resistance to the protesters.

Land and Water Establishment is a Palestinian NGO, dedicated to preserving human rights through legal advocacy. LAWE is also an affiliate member of the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights.