The judicial system in the Palestinian Authority leaves criminal suspects languishing in jails for an average of 14 years before courts rule on charges against them, according to a new European Union (EU) study. Some suspects literally spent a life term in prison without even going to trial.
Ninety percent of suspected criminals are still waiting for trial dates despite last year's international pledges of billions of dollars in aid, much of which was supposed to go towards reforming the judicial and police system. In addition, $242 million was pledged four months ago for new courthouses and prisons.
The EU estimates it will take the PA 14 years to clear the present backlog of 4,000 criminal cases, with several hundred suspects in jail, and the organization has announced plans for reform.
Including civil cases, the backlog stands at 50,000 cases, a figure which does not take into account the statistics in Gaza, which is under the rule of the de facto Hamas government.
"We have problems at all levels," EU reform program director Christophe Lukits told reporters in Ramallah on Tuesday.
Recently deployed PA special forces troops in Jenin, Shechem and Hevron are expected to put more suspects in jail without trial.
The PA human right group Al-Haq charged earlier this year that security services in both the Fatah-run areas of Judea and Samaria and in Hamas-controlled Gaza are operating illegally.
"Palestinian security forces are totally disregarding any attempt made by the civil judiciary to exercise any form of control over their actions, capitalizing on the unconditional support provided by the military judiciary to their misconduct," according to Al-Haq.