Israel military courts lack due process guarantees: rights group
- Israel
- 01/07/2008
The military court system administered by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) often fails to provide full due process rights to Palestinian defendants, according to a report released Sunday by an Israeli human rights group, Yesh Din. An IDF spokesperson dismissed the report, saying that its methodology, in which researchers attended 800 hearings and interviewed court staff and lawyers, led to erroneous conclusions. The Yesh Din report found that only .29 percent of defendants are found entirely not guilty, which implicates the presumption of innocence; that severe restrictions are placed on lawyers attempting to speak with their clients; that 95 percent of all cases are resolved through plea bargains; and that only 1.42 percent of all trials involved the presentation of all evidence in the case.
Yesh Din receives funding from the British and Dutch governments. Former Israeli Attorney General Michael Ben Yair sits on its board.
