CC image by Trillia-Fidei-Bagwell
Three security prisoners filed a motion to the Supreme Court today (January 8) requesting an additional en banc hearing on the Court’s recent ruling to uphold a sweeping ban on correspondence courses for prisoners designated as “security” prisoners.
The decision to deny security prisoners access to academic studies was taken last June in an effort to pressure Hamas into releasing Gilad Shalit, but the ban continued after Shalit’s release. In 2010, there were 270 prisoners taking correspondence courses at the Open University, of whom 60 were ordinary (criminal) prisoners and the rest were security prisoners. Criminal prisoners are still allowed to take such courses.
On December 24, 2012, the Supreme Court denied the petitions of three security prisoners to be allowed to continue their studies at the Open University while serving their sentences in prisons in Israel. In a short ruling, the Supreme Court denied the petitions, holding that the distinction between security prisoners and criminal prisoners is acceptable and does not constitute impermissible discrimination.
In the motion filed today, the petitioners claim that an additional hearing is needed because the Court’s ruling sharply contradicts the the longstanding principle in Israeli case law that prohibits arbitrary discrimination between security prisoners and ordinary criminals, and could be interpreted to allow the worsening of a prisoner’s conditions simply because of his designation as a security prisoner – even without a relevant security justification.
The petitioners stressed that leaving the ruling intact could significantly erode basic legal principles relating to prisoners, under which a person’s human rights are not abandoned at the prison gates. Prior Supreme Court decisions held that the violation of a prisoner’s rights is only allowed if it is necessary to maintain public order or prison security.
The motion for a new hearing was filed on behalf of the three prisoners by Attorney Abeer Baker from the Haifa University Clinic for Prisoners’ Rights and Reentry, Attorney Hassan Jabareen from Adalah, and Attorney Lila Margalit from the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI).
For more information on the original Supreme Court case, including the pleadings and rulings (in Hebrew), click here
