Foreign Minister urges UN special rapporteurs to expose Israeli crimes

Foreign Minister Riyad Malki today urged UN special rapporteurs to expose Israeli crimes committed against the Palestinian people under its occupation in light of the severe torture of Palestinian detainee Samer Arbeed that almost cost him his life.

Malki sent identical letters to the Special Rapporteur on Torture, the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, the Special Rapporteur on Justice and the Special Rapporteur on the State of Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and briefed them on the suffering of Samer Arbeed, who lies in hospital between life and death because of torture and the attempt to kill him, which deprived him in an arbitrary way of the right to life.

Malki called on the special rapporteurs to expose the Israeli crimes and to find mechanisms to hold accountable the Israelis responsible for torturing Arbeed, which was done in coordination with and endorsement of the government and the courts.

He stressed that his ministry has been in touch since the first day of the arrest of Arbeed with all international and United Nations bodies, including the International Committee of the Red Cross, to demand intervention in order to protect Arbeed and all civil and human rights organization, such as Addameer and other non-governmental organizations targeted by the Israeli occupation forces.