A Palestinian detainee has been hospitalized in a critical condition after he had “undergone severe torture” in Israeli custody, his lawyer has said. Israeli media has reported that an investigation has been opened into possible wrongdoing by Israeli security officers.

Lawyer Mahmoud Hassan said on Sunday that his client, Samir Arbeed, 44, suspected of organizing a deadly bombing in the occupied West Bank, is on a respirator at Jerusalem’s Hadassah hospital and had “suffered broken ribs and kidney failure” a day after Israel announced that Arbeed and two other suspects had been arrested.

The legally-sanctioned torture of Palestinian detainee Samir Arbeed by Shin Bet, Israel’s Security Agency, further exposes Israel's complicity in systematic torturehttps://t.co/aZFzhx3k2j

— amnestypress (@amnestypress) September 30, 2019

According to the prisoner rights’ group Addameer, after Arbeed was arrested on Wednesday, he was harshly beaten by the Israeli forces using their guns. He was then taken to the al-Mascobiyya interrogation center in Jerusalem and an order was issued, banning him from meeting his lawyer.

The following day, Arbeed had a court session without his lawyer, Addameer said in a statement on Sunday. According to the session’s protocols, Arbeed informed the judge that he suffers from severe pain in his chest, cannot eat anything and throws up continually.

Even #Israel media reported that a judge gave the domestic intelligence agency permission to “use exceptional ways to investigate” #SamirArbeed #Palestine https://t.co/RXm9zfx1ub

— teleSUR English (@telesurenglish) September 30, 2019

Addameer stated:

“We have no information of why Samer was not transferred immediately to the hospital and in fact his interrogation continued using torture and ill-treatment techniques … “

Israel’s internal security service, Shin Bet, said the man “did not feel well” during interrogation and was taken to a hospital. It gave no further details.

On Saturday evening a lawyer from Addameer was informed through a phone call from one of the interrogators that Arbeed is unconscious, on artificial respiration and in a “critical situation”.

Addameer : Prisoner Arabeed was severely tortured by interrogators https://t.co/Tq202wLyZx

— Joe Catron (@jncatron) September 29, 2019

According to Israeli media, the Shin Bet was given legal permission to use “extraordinary measures” during Arbeed’s interrogation.

According to the Convention against Torture, no “exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war” can be used as a justification for torture, which includes circumstances relating to counterterrorism.

Torture amounts to a war crime under the Rome Statute and when systematic and widespread, amounts to a crime against humanity.

(Al Jazeera, PC, Social Media)