Age: 27 years old
Occupation: Sociology student
Marital Status: Single
Place of Detention: Ashkelon detention centre
Date of Arrest: 18 March 2009
Occupation: Sociology student
Marital Status: Single
Place of Detention: Ashkelon detention centre
Date of Arrest: 18 March 2009
Arrest and interrogation
Ala was arrested on the 18 March 2009 from his family home. He was transferred to Etzion detention centre and then Ashkelon interrogation centre. A detainee nicknamed Haitham testified to the interrogator there that he was working for the workers’ and students’ union of the Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine (hereinafter PFLP) until 2001. Ala denied knowing this person and denied the accusation. Disbelieving his claims, Ala’s interrogators then transferred him to Beersheva, where collaborators are known to entice detainees into confessing to their charges during interrogation.
After being kept in detention for 8-9 days, Ala was then taken back to Ashkelon interrogation centre to see an intelligence officer, who interrogated him a second time. Once again, the interrogator relied on “Haitham’s” testament that Ala had been a active within PFLP until 2001, and further added that he had confessed to being a member of the organization whilst being detained in Beersheva. Again, Ala denied the accusation that he was a member or that he shared information with “Haitham”.
Following a second denial, Ala was left alone in the interrogation room for a long time. He was interrogated again by the same intelligence officer, who threatened him to keep him in the interrogation centre for 180 days. He was taken to see a doctor and the questions stopped temporarily. After seeing the doctor, Ala was then taken to a cell measuring only 2 x 1 metres. Each hand was shackled to opposite sides of the bed and he was left in that painful position for 24 hours. Because of the stress position he was in, Ala could not sleep or even move around. Insects crawled all over his body adding further difficulties in trying to sleep.
The interrogation continued again the next day. This time, the interrogator accused of being a member of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades after it was becoming clear that Ala would not confess to being a member of the PFLP until 2001. He was placed in the ‘Shabah’ position (shackled in a crucifixion position) whilst being kept in isolation. For another two days, he was questioned again by his interrogators, who yelled at him from 9am to 6pm the next day. He was even taunted by his interrogator, who whispered in his ears that should he confess, his betrayal would known by people.
Following a decline in his mental and physical state whilst placed in the ‘Shabah’ position, Ala was forced to confess to charges that he persistently denied.
Annex no. 1
Affidavit of Ala Moussa Abdul-Razzaq Ayaydeh
I, the undersigned Ala Moussa Abdul-Razzaq Ayaydeh, holder of ID # 941676231, after having been legally warned to tell the truth and nothing but the truth or else I shall be subjected to penal action, state the following:
My name is Ala Moussa Abdul-Razzar Ayaida and I am 27 years old. [Before my arrest] I studied sociology and worked two jobs. I was reading the Al-Fatiha when I was arrested on 18 March 2009.
After my arrest and my transfer to Etzion [detention centre], I was moved to Ashkelon where they told me that a man [called Haitham] who testified that I was with the workers’ and students’ section (union) of PFLP until 2001. However I denied that I knew this person.
The following day, the guards took me to the collaborators cells in Beersheva, where again the claim that I knew Haitham was erroneously held against me. They also said that he had made a confession about me.
After 8-9 days, they returned me to the interrogation centre and I was taken directly to Ashkelon to see a tall intelligence officer with red skin and hair with and freckles on his face. This man said that the same man (Haitham) made a confession about me. The investigator also claimed that when I was in the collaborators’ cell I confessed to being a member of PFLP and that I was recommended to the organization by a man called Ahed Ayaida. I denied that I knew Ahed, or that I was part of PFLP or even that I had shared information with the collaborators.
When I denied this, the interrogator left me for a long time in the interrogation room and said that I would remain there for a long time until I have haemorrhoids. After an hour, he returned and started asking me questions. He became angry and asked: “you don’t want to confess?” And I told him that I had already said that I do not wish to confess to anything.
This investigator threatened to leave me in the interrogation for 180 days and when I said to him that it didn’t matter and that I was innocent and it didn’t matter if I stayed 400 days, he asked nervously ‘What do you want, to die here’? When I told him that I wish I would die here and that it would be an honour to me, he spoke to another policeman and then took me to a doctor. Once there they did not question me further. After writing a document, which they gave to the guard, they took me to another section, where I entered a room with iron bars in the window. The cell measured 2×1 metres and there was only a bed. They shackled each hand to the (opposite) side of the bed and left me there from around 6pm to 6pm the next day.
The night was very difficult especially when sleeping on the iron bed where the mattress was around 3cm thick and it was not possible to move around. My physical and mental state was in a very poor shape. There were a lot of cockroaches and other insects which I felt walking across my body.
The next day, they took me to the same investigator who questioned me. He resorted to sarcasm this time and compared me to Jesus Christ. He also started yelling cursing my mother and my sister and saying that I was not a member of that PFLP branch but that I am in the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades.
Before placing me in the ‘Shabah position’ whilst also in isolation, a policewoman, who was with me, asked me if I wanted to die and I said to her “no, but that I am human being and it was wrong for the interrogator to keep me shackled all the time during the interrogation”. I said little else more.
After two days, they moved me to another interrogation centre where I was interrogated for further long hours by a man called Yuvall . They would leave me alone in front of him, shackled, for long hours. His face was positioned close to my face and he regularly yelled at me for a whole day from 9am to 6pm the next day. On the 1st April another investigator whispered in my ears: “confessing is betrayal and things like this are talked about”
After all of this and as a result of pressure and my conviction that they would keep me in the interrogation centre for 180 days and in light of what I saw in the “shabah” cell and how easy it was for them to do what they wanted, I agreed to confess to a matter which was not true. In contrast to my belief, I stated that this person Haitham was correct and that I was a member of the workers’ and students’ branch of PFLP in the year 2001 and that he was the one who recommended me (it must be noted that at that time the branch was not forbidden).
This is my name and my signature and the contents of my statement are true.