HRW Urges Abbas to punish killers of Majd Barghouthi

The American Human Rights Watch organization has called on PA chief Mahmoud Abbas to bring to trial those who tortured Majd Al-Barghouthi, a Mosque Imam, to death while in PA detention.

Following are excerpts from the HRW report:
“The Palestinian Authority should promptly implement the recommendations of the Palestinian Legislative Council’s investigation into the recent torture and death in custody of Majid al-Barghuti, Human Rights Watch said today. The Palestinian Authority should hold accountable members of the security services who violated Palestinian or international law in his death.

“The evidence collected by Human Rights Watch and the PLC committee strongly suggest that al-Barghuti died from torture,” said Joe Stork, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “We hope President Abbas will help end torture by bringing to justice those who apparently killed Majid al-Barghuti.”

“He wasn’t sick, he suffered no health problems,” al-Barghuti’s brother said.

In addition to the credible allegations of torture, Palestinian Authority security forces committed other violations of Palestinian and international law in their handling of the case, Human Rights Watch said. Al-Barghuti, as well as the other two men in custody at the same time, were not informed of the reasons for their arrest, allowed to see a lawyer, or brought before an investigative judge, as Palestinian law requires after 24 hours in detention. Al-Barghuti also seems to have been denied prompt medical care.”
The full report by HRW could be seen at the following link:
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/04/04/isrlpa18425.htm

Meanwhile, the Arab member of the Israeli parliament Sheikh Ibrahim Abdullah called on Abbas to prosecute those who tortured Al-Barghouthi to death.

He charged that human rights violations were rampant in the West Bank at the hands of the PA security in a way threatening what was left of Palestinian national unity.