The Supreme Court has placed another restriction on the IDF's ability to fight the anti-terrorism war. A panel of three judges, including Chief Justice Aharon Barak, nullified today a special military order allowing terrorist suspects to be held for 12 days without a judicial ruling. The judges, accepting the petition of seven civil rights organizations, instructed the army to come up with a new regulation - including a new specification for the amount of time a suspect may be held - within six months. Until then, the current regulation will still be in force.
The army maintained that the nature of counter-terrorism activity makes it hard to distinguish between terrorists and innocent citizens, and that therefore a relatively long detention period is necessary. The Court allowed the army to continue to prevent the terror suspects from meeting their lawyers for the first two days of their custody.
The army maintained that the nature of counter-terrorism activity makes it hard to distinguish between terrorists and innocent citizens, and that therefore a relatively long detention period is necessary. The Court allowed the army to continue to prevent the terror suspects from meeting their lawyers for the first two days of their custody.