Arab lawyer kills self after release from prison

A Palestinian rights group claimed that torture at the hands of Israeli authorities drove an Israeli-Arab lawyer to commit suicide as he faced charges of assisting the Hamas terror organization.

Amjad al-Safadi was found hanged in his East Jerusalem apartment on Tuesday, police said.

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Society claimed that during 45 days of detention by Israeli authorities, Safadi was beaten and subjected to electric shock treatment during interrogations, the Ma’an News Agency reported.

Safadi, who was released on NIS 20,000 ($5,700) bail at the end of last week, was so traumatized by the harsh questioning that he took his own life, the PPS asserted.

A police spokesman confirmed to The Times of Israel that Safadi was found in his apartment and that forensic evidence pointed to suicide. The spokesman rejected claims that the lawyer was mistreated during his questioning.

“He went through regular questioning and a regular investigation,” he said. “All other allegations made are incorrect and misleading.”

Safadi, said to be in his 20s, was arrested in March in connection with a suspected courier ring that helped Hamas and other terror organizations pass messages and cash between the Gaza Strip and prisoners held in Israeli jails. Safadi was arrested along with five other East Jerusalem lawyers on charges of aiding terror organizations.

His family said he was depressed during his incarceration. He was seen by a prison psychiatrist who said he was not clinically depressed, according to attorney Lea Tsemel, who is representing another lawyer detained in the case, Haaretz reported.

According to the police, the five men and a woman took advantage of lawyer-client confidentiality permitted by Israeli authorities to act as couriers between Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and Palestinians incarcerated by Israel. The lawyers allegedly transmitted instructions for hunger strikes and details of prisoner releases, and were paid between NIS 500-700 ($144 – $200) per message. Some of the communications were conveyed to Hamas and Islamic Jihad operatives abroad.

Among the details contained in the messages were financial matters concerning the running of Gaza organizations, the logistics of hunger strikes, identifying which prisoners were to be released in the Gilad Shalit deal, and organizing support for Khaled Mashaal to lead Hamas.

Shalit, an Israeli soldier captured by Hamas during a raid into Israel in 2006, was eventually released in 2011 in exchange for over 1,000 Palestinian security prisoners held in Israeli jails.