Amnesty International calls on Denmark to extradite Israel's ambassador
Israel-Denmark, Politics, 8/15/2001

Amnesty International (AI) asked the Danish government to arrest or extradite Israel's new ambassador Carmi Gillon, former head of the Israel's General Security Services (GSS), a notorious torturer.

AI bases its request on Denmark's duty under the UN Convention against Torture to detain persons found in their territory suspected of responsibility for torture or to take other measures to ensure their presence pending criminal or extradition proceedings. It also recalls Denmark of its commitments to search for and bring to justice persons responsible for grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, to which Denmark is a High Contracting Party.

During Gillon's period of service as head of GSS from March 1995 to February 1996 "physical pressures" practices were used against several hundred Palestinian detainees every year, many of whom were later released without charge. In April 1995, after the death of a detainee, Abd al-Samad Harizat, from a brain hemorrhage as a result of violent shaking, when the ministerial committee overseeing the GSS was reportedly divided as to whether to allow the continuation of these practices, the GSS argued strongly that such means were necessary

According to detainees' testimonies quoted by AI, violent shaking of detainees normally took place with the legs shackled below a low chair and the hands handcuffed behind and between the back bars of a chair; this diminishes the support for the detainee's back and thus his ability to resist the shaking. Detainees have frequently reported falling unconscious while being subjected to violent shaking.

Gillon has stated in interviews with the Danish media that he was involved in about 100 cases in which detainees were tortured or ill-treated; he effectively advocated the reintroduction of torture by stating in an interview to Jyllands Posten on July 9, 2001 that "Now it looks as though we have to use [techniques of physical pressure] again and I am sorry about that."

AI reminds the Danish government which has traditionally opposed the use of torture, and has criticized Israel for using torture as an interrogation technique should have blocked Gillon's appointment, regardless of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations that grants immunity to the diplomatic representative of a government.

AI further argues that the Vienna Convention was adopted some 25 years before the crime of torture was defined and codified in the Convention against Torture and therefore, its drafter did not envisage that it would reverse the fundamental rule of international law, as reflected in the Nuremberg and Tokyo Charters, and most recently in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, that no public official is immune with respect to crimes under international law.

AI points out that as a state party to the Convention against Torture, Denmark has a duty not to provide a suspected torturer with a safe haven. Amnesty International urges the Danish government to initiate a prompt, thorough, independent and impartial investigation into the claims of torture against Carmi Gillon as soon as he arrives on Danish territory.

Previous Stories:
  Danish people refuse new Israeli ambassador   (7/28/2001)
  Denmark and Israel   (7/21/2001)

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