UN official to meet survivors, witnesses, freed hostages in Hamas sex crimes probe

By AFP and ToI Staff 10 January 2024, 10:57 pm

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In this September 14, 2017 file photo, Pramila Patten attends a special screening of Netflix's 'First They Killed My Father' at the DGA theater in New York. (Andy Kropa/Invision/AP, File)

A UN official heading to Israel to probe allegations of sexual assault by Hamas will meet with a wide range of people, including survivors and freed hostages, says a United Nations spokesman.

Pramila Patten, the UN special representative on sexual violence in conflict, “is expected to meet with survivors, witnesses and others affected by sexual violence to identify avenues of support,” the UN secretary-general’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric says, adding that Patten also plans to meet with “recently released hostages and detainees.”

She will “be accompanied by experts in safe and ethical interviewing, forensic evidence, digital analysis and accountability,” he says, with the trip part of “the exercise of her mandate in accordance with a standard UN methodology.”