Israeli trials of Palestinians unfair: rights group

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - An Israeli human rights group said on Sunday that the Jewish state's trials of detained Palestinians in the occupied West Bank violated international law and were often unfair.

Yesh Din, which monitors the legal rights of Palestinians, said in its report that only 23 of 8,854 verdicts handed down in 2006 by army courts resulted in acquittals. More than 99 percent of defendants were found guilty, the group said.

"The military court system does not meet the standards of international law and does not provide due process to those it adjudicates," said Michael Sfard, a legal adviser to the organization.

An Israeli army spokesman said the Yesh Din report was faulty and biased.

"A complete and objective review of the activities of the military courts will lead to the conclusion that given the constraints existing in the region, the system provides full opportunity for just trials," the spokesman said.

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said during a visit to the West Bank city of Nablus that the report highlighted Israel's "under-achievement in all that relates to the issue of Palestinian detainees".

Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war and still applies military law to Palestinians living in the territory.

About 11,000 Palestinians are currently imprisoned in Israeli jails. The issue is highly emotive for Palestinians, who view their imprisoned brethren as fighters against foreign occupation.

In its report, Yesh Din criticized the military for hastily remanding Palestinian detainees until the end of their trials in hearings that last, on average, less than two minutes. The report said the abuses were systematic and the trial system was "not fair" to defendants.

Yesh Din said that of 9,123 trials held in military courts in 2006, only 130 involved the presentation of evidence and the interrogation of witnesses by defense lawyers.

Yesh Din said that lawyers representing Palestinian defendants often agree to plea bargains, partly because of "threats and physical measures" used by Israel's Shin Bet security service against their clients.

The organization accused the army of violating the rights of Palestinian detainees to a public trial by allowing only two family members to attend court proceedings and by limiting access by the public.

The Israeli government has released several hundred prisoners since June to bolster Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and is considering easing the criteria for freeing more prisoners.

(Additional reporting by Atef Sa'ad in Nablus and Haitham Tamimi in Jerusalem; editing by Tim Pearce)