Live video of Shin Bet interrogations leading to disciplinary action – Israel News



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The relatively new institution of live video surveillance of interrogations of the Shin Bet (Israeli Security Agency) has resulted in both disciplinary measures and reforms of the interrogation process, said Wednesday the Attorney General Nurit Litman.

Litman's statement at a conference at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center was the first public statement made by a government official about the impact of live video surveillance.

The conference was an unusual gathering of leaders, both right and left, to criticize the use of Shin Bet-enhanced interrogations, with Litman responding to many aspects of criticism.

Moria Shlomot, chairman of the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, questioned Litman on the fact that there was only one criminal investigation into the Shin Bet's conduct on more than 1,000 complaints in the last 15 years.

This gave the impression that there was "general immunity for the Shin Bet" to do whatever he wanted to the Palestinians during the interrogations, she said.

At this point, Litman responded to the Ministry of Justice's czar investigating complaints against the Shin Bet, not according to the number of criminal investigations opened, but according to the number of disciplinary charges against Shin Bet agents and in-depth reforms of the judicial system. interrogation process.

In dealing with these two issues, she stated that the institution's live video control of the Shin Bet interrogations had helped to get things done.

The Ministry of Justice has not provided statistics on the number of disciplinary proceedings.

In December 2016, after two quasi-governmental reports – the 2013 Turkel Report and the September 2015 Ciechanover Report – recommended a variable monitoring of Shin Bet interrogations by video, the Knesset approved the reform regarding live video surveillance. .

Litman described the procedure as including a live video feed with a supervisor and unannounced intermittent spot checks by Shin Bet investigators.

She added that this unpredictability even forced interrogators who might consider crossing the line to stay within the law, as they never knew when an investigator would observe them.

Litman stated that monitoring supervisors and investigating investigators on an ad hoc basis resulted in disciplinary action. These reforms prevent Shin Bet agents from crossing the line and engaging in illegal behavior, she said.

PCATI views live video as an improvement, but insufficient since it is not recorded and neither they nor the court can view the video to draw their own conclusions.

In addition to the video issue, Litman said the lack of criminal investigations stemmed from the fact that Shin Bet officials were generally more credible than complaining Palestinian prisoners, who are generally accused of security crimes.

She added that many Palestinians make accusations that they have been tortured so that when they are released they will not be labeled collaborators by the general public for reporting other prisoners.

With respect to PCATI's criticism that the justice official took too much time to review the complaints, Ms. Litman admitted that she was not satisfied with the number of cases in waiting, but that the investigation department was too small to resolve it quickly and that many complaints of torture were pending. until the main security crime case against the Palestinian is over.

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