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Political Prisoners

Report: IDF doctor says Dirani rape
claim backed by evidence

Haaretz
News Agencies and Haaretz Staff
December 21, 2005

Channel 1 television on Wednesday reported than Israel Defense Forces doctor who examined kidnapped Lebanese guerrilla leader Mustafa Dirani found physical evidence to back his charge that he was raped.

The channel quoted from a document where the doctor, identified as Lieutenant Colonel Chen Kugel, wrote, "on the basis of my examination of Mr. Dirani... the results can substantiate the essence of the complaint" that he was raped.

Dirani was abducted from Lebanon in 1994 by an elite Israeli force to serve as a bargaining chip for information on the fate of the missing Israel Air Force navigator Ron Arad, whose jet was downed over Lebanon skies in 1986.

He was freed in January 2004, as part of a deal with Lebanese-based militant group Hezbollah, which saw the return of the bodies of three IDF soldiers killed by the group on the Israel-Lebanon border in October 2000, and of former Israeli officer Elhanan Tennanbaum.

On Tuesday, an Israeli court upheld Dirani's right to demand compensation for alleged torture and rape he endured in an Israeli prison, but barred him, as a resident of an enemy nation, from receiving any funds as a result.

The Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court turned down a state request to deny the senior Lebanese militant the possibility of demanding compensation for torture he had undergone in Israeli prison.

Judge Amiram Binyamini, nevertheless, stated that if Dirani's claim for compensation is upheld by court, he would not be entitled to receive any money since he is a resident of a hostile state.

The Lebanese group Amal, where Dirani was a senior member, held Arad for several years in Lebanon, later saying it had handed him over to Iran.

Dirani was placed under administrative detention, which was extended every six months until his release.

In his compensation claim, Dirani said he had been raped by a Shin Bet securty service interrogator, nichnamed "George," who had allegedly inserted a wooden club in his rectum.

Dirani that demanded Israel pay him NIS 6 million in compensation. His attorney, Zvi Rish, stated that Dirani was taken for interrogation over Arad's fate immediately after his abduction.

During the month-long questioning, Dirani claims he had undergone extensive torture, including "rattling," humiliation, beating, sleep deprivation and tying up in painful positions for long hours.

The Lebanese militant claimed that an interrogator was brought in specifically to rape him.

Rish argued that the need to obtain information about Arad's fate could not justify "sadism in the way it was used during the array of torture Dirani had undergone."

He also claimed that while Dirani was being tortured by the Shin Bet, Israel had already known that Arad was no longer held by Amal.

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Additional Resources

Amnesty International Report – IDF doctor says Dirani rape claim backed by evidence

Fact Sheet – Palestinian Prisoners in Israeli Detention

B’Tselem Fact Sheet – Administrative Detention

Organizations

Defence for Children International, Palestine

Addameer Prisoners’ Support and Human Rights Association

Palestinian Prisoners’ Society

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