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Israel refers to African migrants by prison numbers in court

Israel refers to African migrants by prison numbers in court

‘Behind the number there are people and it would be appropriate and correct to note the people’s names and not numbers,’ says judge.

By | Dec. 26, 2013 | 3:08 AM | 1
Detail from the court protocol's first page.

Detail from the court protocol’s first page.

In an unusual step, the state has filed a court appeal in a case involving African migrants in which the court papers refer only to the prison numbers of the 153 detainees and not their names. A lawyer for the state attorney’s office told the Be’er Sheva District Court that the appeal was filed under extreme time pressure and the list of names would be provided at a later time.

The appeal, which was filed Tuesday, is an effort by the state to overturn a decision by a custody court, which ruled that it did not have the authority to rule on the continued detention of African migrants.

The group of 153 detainees was transferred about two weeks ago from the Saharonim prison in the south to a new facility at Holot. Detainees in the new facility are free to leave during the day, but must attend roll-call three times a day and be back at Holot at night. The detainees were arrested last week at a demonstration in front of the Knesset and sent back to Saharonim.

Judge Sarah Dovrat, deputy president of the Be’er Sheva District Court, took the state to task over the use of the detainees’ prison numbers in the appeal. “I do not believe that this is the proper way to file an appeal, since behind the number there are people and it would be appropriate and correct to note the people’s names and not numbers.” It was resolved that the case would be sent back to the custody court, where the issue of the court’s authority to hear the matter would also be considered.

A new amendment to the Prevention of Infiltration Law requires the state to bring each African migrant who is in detention before a judge within seven days of being taken into custody. In accordance with the provisions of the law, the state sought a court ruling confirming the continued detention at Saharonim prison of the migrants who had been arrested at the Jerusalem demonstration. The migrants were sent back to Saharonim for violating the terms of their stay at Holot, which provide for up to three months imprisonment in the event of absence for more than 48 hours.

The state sought the custody court’s approval after an Interior Ministry official imposed the maximum three month jail term on the 153 migrants, but a four-judge custody court panel ruled that it had no authority to decide the issue. “The court cannot examine the grounds for release from custody … [or] the continued holding of the infiltrators in custody,” Judge Raja Marzouk wrote on behalf of the panel. The state quickly appealed the ruling to the district court, specifying only a long list of prisoner numbers in its court filing.

“I contend that an appeal cannot be filed the way it was,” said Asaf Weizman, a lawyer for the Hotline for Refugees and Migrants which represents 123 of the detainees, at the district court hearing. He also protested the fact that his clients were not present at the district court hearing. “As long as this involves people whom I represent, I insist that they be present at the hearing,” he said.

“The appeal was filed under extreme pressure,” Nehama Brook, a lawyer for the state attorney’s office, told the court. “We have the documents regarding all of them and it’s clear that with regard to the time discrepancies, it was not possible to file with the names. We will present the court with an organized list,” she said. Brook added that the state had made an effort to have the detainees at the custody court hearing, but was not able to. She asked the court to deal with the appeal immediately, in the absence of the migrants.

Following the decision of the district court to send the case back to the custody court, the lower court heard the cases of some of the detainees Wednesday. Weizman requested that his clients be immediately released, calling the Interior Ministry’s decision to send them to Saharonim following the demonstration in Jerusalem illegitimate. The new law, he said, also provides grounds for immediate release. These include being held in custody for more than a year, the failure to deal with asylum requests for more than six months and the existence of special humanitarian grounds for release. The custody court has yet to make its ruling.

“These people demonstrated outside the Knesset building in Jerusalem and have been punished as a result by an Interior Ministry clerk who is not a lawyer,” Weizman told Haaretz. “It’s not legal and it’s not constitutional. They didn’t ask to work. They weren’t evasive. They didn’t flee. Their intentions were clear to the authorities from the first moment. When all is said and done, they sought to demonstrate in a non-violent manner in front of the legislature that allowed their detention without trial for the past two years. These people cannot be held in detention.” [read more http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/.premium-1.565477]


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