District Court

Translation: Marganit W.

Brief Background:

On 2.4.14 it was reported that five men and one woman from East Jerusalem had been arrested on suspicion of transferring money and messages from the Islamic Jihad and Hamas to security prisoners inside Israeli jails.

Midhat and Shireen Issawi own and run a law firm in Issawiya. They are suspected of paying attorneys whom they hired to visit the prisons.

The detainees are four lawyers and  Shireen and Midhat Issawi.

(the four lawyers were released on bail and are currently under house arrest: one committed suicide after his release).

Atty. Smadar Ben Nathan represents Shirin.

Shosh Kahn from “Women for Political (female) Prisoners” and myself attended most of the hearings in Shirin’s case, including a request for alternative to detention – which was rejected – and an appeal to the Supreme Court, which was also rejected by Justice Elyakim Rubinstein.

The hearing on 6.10.14 at the Jerusalem District Court was held before Justice Y. Noam.

Atty. Michal Pomeranz from Ben Nathan’s law firm, petitioned for disclosure of evidence. The prosecutor declared right away that he had not noticed such a petition in the appeal to the court. There was a discussion about the difference between Clause 74 and Clause 108, but I have to admit that I did not understand the distinction between the two.

Then the hearing of the petition began.

The attorney asked to see a transcript of the visits that the prisoners were supposed to receive. There are 150 prisoners, most of whom were not visited by any relatives or attorneys. Atty. Pomeranz stated that the defense case focuses on the legitimacy of those visits. The lawyers working in Shirin and Midhat Isawi’s office entered prison as attorneys: if the clients has no way of passing information about their situation, this is the attorney’s job.

Decision will be handed down on 22.10.14

On 23.10.14 there will be separate hearings in Shireen and Midhat’s case.

On the same day, at 14:30, another lawyer from the same law firm will have a hearing. He is Omar Iskapi, represented by Atty. Leah Tzemel, before Justice Drori.

All the hearings will take place at the Jerusalem District Court.

In my opinion, all these detentions and trials are aimed at putting pressure on the security prisoners, in order to isolate them even more from the outside world.