Shin Bet Agent Charged in Death of Jailed Palestinian

Israel, in an apparently unprecedented move, filed criminal charges Thursday against an agent of the Shin Bet security police for allegedly causing the death of a Palestinian teen-ager during questioning in prison.

The agent is believed to be the first Shin Bet operative to be prosecuted publicly for criminal acts while on duty, Justice Ministry officials and attorneys said.

Two other agents will face disciplinary action for allegedly filing false reports to cover up the death of Awad Hamdan, 19, in Jenin prison in the occupied West Bank in July, a spokeswoman for Israeli Atty. Gen. Yosef Harish said.

Hamdan’s parents charged there were signs their son had been tortured.

‘Caused by Negligence’

“From the evidence, apparently the death of Hamdan was caused by negligence,” the spokeswoman said. “Criminal charges have been laid against an officer suspected of causing the death, and two others will stand trial for perjury in the related incident.”

A Supreme Court hearing was scheduled for Feb. 25.

None of the agents was identified.

The charges further tarnished the image of the beleaguered Shin Bet, the Hebrew initials for the agency known as the General Security Services. It is roughly equivalent to the American FBI.

The security force, which reports directly to the prime minister, is responsible for internal security in Israel and the occupied territories, where at least 55 Palestinians have been killed in anti-Israeli unrest since Dec. 9.

In November, a special investigative committee concluded that Shin Bet agents have routinely used “physical pressure” to obtain confessions from suspects and then lied in court about their methods.

Agents have defended such practices by saying they are necessary to obtain information quickly about planned guerrilla attacks.

Israelis generally have shrugged off the allegations, contending Shin Bet faces a daunting task in efforts to prevent terrorism and maintain security in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, seized from Jordan and Egypt in the 1967 Middle East War.

But several attorneys speculated that Israel has moved against the agents in the Hamdan case in a bid to improve its human rights image after weeks of international condemnation of its use of deadly force and beatings to crush the Palestinian uprising in the territories.

“This says, ‘Well, at least we are trying,”’ one lawyer said of the government’s legal move.