Have You Tried the Palestinian Judiciary?

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

I have had a compensation claim before the Ramallah Court of First Instance since 3/April/2007; it is case number 101/2007. The case is a claim against the Palestinian Authority for financial compensation for my having been detained for nearly six months without publicly stated reasons and without trial. The compensation sought amounts to 30,000 Jordanian dinars, for purposes of the filing fee, with my lawyer at the time, the late Mr. Abdul-Karim Hammad, God have mercy on him, reserving the right to claim more than that.

The lawyer now handling the case is Mr. Imad Salahuddin of Talluza.

The Palestinian Authority detained me for about six months while I was on a sabbatical from An-Najah National University—the first time in history that a university professor spent his sabbatical in prison for reasons that were never disclosed, though I believe they were political. No one ever told me why I was arrested, and no one ever told me why I was released. They simply placed me in a prison infested with fleas, and no one ever brought any charge against me. My lawyer at the time obtained a ruling from the High Court of Justice that my detention was unlawful, and the court ordered my immediate release. That “immediate” never happened, and no one honored it.

Concluding the merits of the case

The lawyer completed his written evidentiary submissions on 6/January/2011. With this, the case has moved past the procedural and substantive objections. The lawyer had earlier submitted a comprehensive list of his evidence, followed by the official written documents. These are summarized as follows:

The High Court of Justice ruling, and the judicial deliberations that accompanied it;

Documentary proof of my two employment contracts with Birzeit University and the Scientific Research Center in Nablus during my sabbatical—naturally, these were lost as far as salary was concerned;

Certificates from doctors and hospitals concerning an illness that afflicted me during my detention, from which I still suffer to this day;

A certificate from An-Najah University’s personnel affairs department confirming that I was on sabbatical, clarifying that I was drawing my salary from An-Najah University, but that I did not receive my two outside salaries from Birzeit University and the Scientific Research Center;

Documents proving the effect of my detention on members of my family, particularly one who was in the final year of secondary school (tawjihi) at the time.

—finally, the judge gave him a two-week grace period, until 7/February/2011. The deputy prosecutor did in fact submit his comprehensive list of evidence by that date. The judge adjourned the session until 14/March/2011 in order to give the deputy prosecutor an opportunity to present his evidence.

At the session of 14/March/2011, it happened that the judge was occupied, and indicated to the lawyer that he could go attend to other business since her engagement would take a while. But the case file was transferred, without her knowledge and without the lawyer’s knowledge, to another judge during the lawyer’s absence, and the case was postponed until 12/April due to the lawyer’s absence.

Motion to dismiss

The deputy prosecutor appeared on 12/April/2011 with a motion to dismiss the case “for invalidity of the litigation due to gross ambiguity in the special power of attorney under which the case was filed,” relying on Article 101 of the Law of Civil and Commercial Procedure No. 2 of 2001. But this article states that motions may be submitted to the court at any point during the course of the case. Article 89 of Law No. 2 of 2001, however, states that a motion to dismiss may not be filed after the merits of the case have been entered into. The deputy public prosecutor even tried to cover himself in his motion by claiming that he was requesting dismissal before the merits had been entered into. But if the submission of evidence does not constitute entering into the merits, then what does? To my knowledge, a judge’s ruling relies less on pleadings than it does on evidence. Evidence is what is decisive in issuing a verdict.

I am not a lawyer, but I know that procedural and substantive objections are supposed to be raised early, yet the Public Prosecution is exceedingly late with this motion. The Public Prosecution had already acknowledged the validity of the case through the following:

The Public Prosecution repeated its response to the statement of claim;

The Public Prosecution submitted its comprehensive list of evidence;

The court gave the Public Prosecution more than one extension to submit its list of evidence and to present that evidence.

I asked several lawyers about this matter, and they told me that these are their tactics for obstructing justice when they expect to lose.

I am well aware that justice in our country needs a great many crutches, and that a long patience is required.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “هل جربت القضاء الفلسطيني؟” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.