An Israeli court recognized, on Tuesday, the right of the freed Lebanese detainee, Mustafa Dirani to demand compensation for torture and mistreatment, which included sexual assaults; he was subjected to by Shabak interrogators, while he was detained in Israeli prisons.
The decision comes in contradiction to the demands of the Israeli prosecution which rejected the right of Dirani to file for compensation.
Yet, Judge Amiram Binyamini said that that if Dirani’s claim for compensation is upheld by court, he would not be entitled to receive any money since he is a resident of a hostile country.
The court denied the right of Dirani to demand compensation for torture, and abuse, he had undergone in Israeli prisons.
Dirani demanded to receive 6 million NIS in compensation, but the Israeli laws bar any financial cooperation with “hostile countries”, therefore even the court orders the compensation, Dirani will not receive the money.
Zvi Rish, the lawyer of Dirani said that money is not the issue in this case, especially since it was filed to expose the Israeli procedures and abuse practiced against the detainees.
Yet the money could be deposited in an account which could be activated after a peace deal is reached between Israel and Lebanon, he added.
Rish said that he lost communication with Dirani the moments he was sent back to Lebanon some 18 months ago, adding that Dirani does not even know that the court is currently discussing his case.
Rish added that the State and its prosecution cannot bar Dirani from filing charges, in international courts, against Israeli military officials
Dirani was abducted from Lebanon, and spent eight years in detention without any charges. He was abducted along with Sheikh Abdul-Karim Obeid. Israel used the two in order to bargain Hezbollah over Ron Arad, the Israeli pilot who was lost in Lebanon in the eighties.
On October 16 1986, The Israeli air force navigator, Captain Ron Arad, bailed out of his plane on a mission in Lebanon and was captured by members of the Iranian-backed Shiite group, Amal.
In 1994, an elite Israeli force abducted Dirani from Lebanon to serve as a bargaining chip for information on the fate of the missing navigator Ron Arad, whose jet was downed over Lebanon skies in 1986.
Israeli had to release Dirani and several other Arab and Palestinian detainees in a prisoner swap deal with Hezbollah; Israeli retrieved the bodies of three Israeli soldiers, and Elhanan Tannenbaum who was abducted by Hezbollah in 2000.
