A Bedouin Israeli man held by the Shin Bet on suspicion of arms smuggling has died in hospital after being found unconscious in his cell at a southern Israeli prison, with his family and lawyers saying they found severe bruising on his body.
According to a Haaretz report, Saber Amitel, 21, was arrested earlier this month and taken to Shikma prison in Ashkelon, where he was denied access to a lawyer.
Police told his attorneys and family that he had attempted to take his own life.
His family and legal team were only permitted to visit him after Haaretz enquired about the case.
When his lawyers visited him at Barzilai Hospital on 8 June, they found severe bruising on his body, according to Haaretz.
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He died on 20 June. His body has been transferred to the National Centre of Forensic Medicine pending further examination.
His family has refused to authorise an autopsy for religious reasons, meaning only an external examination is expected to be carried out.
Amitel, a resident of Negev, had no criminal record and worked as a locksmith and welder at a metal manufacturing and casting factory.
His father, Odeh, told Haaretz that his son had travelled to Beersheba on the day of his arrest and then disappeared.
The family searched for him for two days before reporting him missing to police, at which point they were told he had been arrested.
“We came to Barzilai Medical Centre and saw him all hooked up to machines. He was like a vegetable; his brain wasn’t functioning,” Odeh told Haaretz.
“Medical staff told us that this is how he arrived,” he added. “He was under guard and handcuffed. From a healthy boy who was arrested while walking on his own two feet, he ended up in this condition.”
Odeh rejected the suggestion that his son had taken his own life. “Saber was never interrogated. I raised a good, kind, quiet child. He didn’t harm anyone,” he said.
“They took a healthy kid away from me only to return him dead. There’s no law in this country anymore; people are being killed under torture.”
‘No criminal record’
Amitel’s lawyers have filed an urgent petition with the Beersheba District Court demanding a court-ordered inquiry into the circumstances of his death, filed against the Israel Prison Service, the Shin Bet, the police and Barzilai Medical Centre.
They are also seeking CCTV footage from Shikma prison, duty logs and medical documents.
“It is inconceivable that the police and Shin Bet detained a young man, healthy in body and mind, with no criminal record, who worked long hours at a factory supporting his family, and returned him to his family as a dead body,” his attorneys Esther Bar Zion and Victor Ozen told Haaretz.
The Israel Prison Service said it would not comment on medical or personal details concerning a detainee and that “the circumstances are being examined by the competent authorities”.
The Shin Bet said Amitel “was interrogated in accordance with the law” and that on 7 June “it was found that the detainee had attempted to take his own life in his cell” after which he was transferred to hospital.
Since the beginning of the genocide in Gaza in October 2023, at least 100 Palestinian prisoners have reportedly died in Israeli custody.
However, it is widely believed that this is an underestimate and real figure could be much higher.
In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123. In the US, you can call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org
