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CU Jailed Palestinian collaborator Dr. Mohamed Rashad Musmar interviewed (in English) in Gaza jail
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REPORTER: "Dr. Rashad Musmar -- if you are here in Gaza prison for your second sentence...this last time you were sentence to four years imprisonment, if I'm not mistaken, for having a headquarters for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in your home..."



MUSMAR: "Five years."



REPORTER: "Five years?"



REPORTER: "You have done how many years now?"



MUSMAR: "I have done four years now, and three months."



REPORTER: "Now you have just told me--most of the prisoners here have told me--that there was no maltreatment in this prison. Is that your opinion also?"



MUSMAR: "During interrogation, there is almost always maltreatment and beating."



REPORTER: "This is the interrogation before. We will get to that. The question is --once you have been sentence, what are the conditions in prison? Is there any maltreatment in the prison?"



MUSMAR: "I didn't see, but I heard."



REPORTER: "But you heard?"



MUSMAR: "Yes, sir."



REPORTER: "Now, you have told me, on the other hand, you have told me on the other hand, you have told me on the other hand, that there is maltreatment of prisoners after your arrest and during your interrogation. So the most brutal physical treatment that you know of is the beatings?"



MUSMAR: "Yes, sir."



REPORTER: "Do you know of any other sort of tortures that would take place during interrogation, that happened to you or people you know?"



MUSMAR: "To happen to me -- nothing other than this."



REPORTER: "Who carries out these interrogations? Which officials of the Israeli Government carry these interrogations out?"



MUSMAR: "They call themselves Shabakim -- interrogators. Shabakim."



REPORTER: "Are they from the police? Or from the army?"



MUSMAR: "They are, yes, I think, from the army...general security forces."



REPORTER: "These interrogations where you say you were maltreated -- they took place at this place Djalama. Did you get the names of any of the interrogators?"



MUSMAR: "Nick-names only."



REPORTER: "What were they?"



MUSMAR: "Abou Mussar, Arif, another one, I think, is called Abou Farah..."



REPORTER: "These were all Israelis then?"



MUSMAR: "Yes, sir."



REPORTER: "Who were using Arabic nick-names?"



"Yes, sir."



REPORTER: "As far as you know, do these maltreatments continue among the prisoners we have here? Are there some who arrived recently and who say they have been....maltreated recently?"



MUSMAR: "I think interrogation with beating and maltreatment is always present...is almost always present."




Initials BB/2000



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: In the wake of allegations by the British newspaper, the Sunday Times, that Israeli authorities have been torturing Arab prisoners, the Israeli Government censor has released a film of an interview with an Arab prisoner by two international news agencies. During the interview, jailed Palestinian collaborator Dr. Mohamed Rashad Musmar told Reuters reporter Arik Bachar and Visnews Television cameraman Micki Molad that he himself had been 'beaten and maltreated' by Israeli authorities during interrogation. The Israeli Government denied the original Sunday Times report on torture of Arab prisoners, and allowed selected journalists to interview prisoners in jail in the occupied Gaza strip -- subject to final censorship. This interview with Dr. Musmar, taken at the end of June, has just been released.