On August 15, 2011, the Minister of Justice submitted a periodic report to the Knesset Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee, on the use of temporary detention orders in accordance with Article 8 of the Criminal Procedure Law (Enforcement Powers – Detention) (Detainees Suspected of Security Offense) (Temporary Order) – 2006 (hereinafter: the Detention Order), which allows some restrictions on judicial review in detention proceedings involving terror suspects.[1]
Article 8 of the Detention Order requires the Minister of Justice to report to the Knesset Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee every six months about the application of the measures restricting the rights of detainees allowed by the Detention Order, in order to facilitate monitoring of the use of such restrictions. These periodic reports include, inter alia, information on the number of times in which the Israeli Security Agency (ISA) suspended the initial judicial review of a suspect for up to 96 hours, the number of times that a judge ordered pre-indictment detention for a period longer than 15 days and up to 35 days, [2] and the number of times that a judge extended detentions in absentia, when the suspect was not present.
The report included data on the implementation of the provisions of the Detention Order during the period from January 1, 2011 through June 30, 2011. During the six months covered by the report, the ISA interrogated 78 detainees and used the provisions of the Detention Order against five of them. Three suspects were detained for a period of between 24 and 48 hours before being brought before judicial review in accordance with article 3(1) of the Detention Order; four suspects were detained by a judge's order for over 30 days prior to being indicted (the detention periods were of 32, 33, 35, and 38 days). No in absentia proceedings took place during the period covered by the report.