Country Listing: Palestinian Authority

Name: Fathi Ahmed Subuh
Profession: Education
Subject: Professor Released on Bail

Alert Dates: 3 December 1997, 24 September 1997

Case Number: PA9713.SUB

Updated: 20 August 1998

Human Rights Issues

• right to life, liberty and security of person
• freedom from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
• freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention
• freedom of opinion and expression
• academic freedom

Mr. Fathi Ahmed Subuh, a Palestinian assistant professor of education at Al-Azhar University, was released on bail on 26 November 1997. Subuh, who was arrested on 2 July 1997, was taken to the Shifa' Hospital on 30 October 1997 having lost consciousness due to a brain condition that he contracted while in detention. Subuh was reportedly subjected to severe torture and ill-treatment during his detention at Tel al-Hawa Prison, which is run by the Palestinian Preventive Security Service (PSS) in Gaza. Reports indicate that while in detention, authorities hung Subuh from behind by his hands with his feet off the ground, beat him, and subjected him to sleep deprivation, and hooding.

Subuh's arrest reportedly stems from a final examination question that he prepared for his students asking them to write about corruption of the Palestinian authority and in Al-Azhar University. Palestinian police reportedly raided Subuh's home looking for his students' exams.

Subuh was released from the hospital on 5,000 dinar (approximately $7,000) bail. He was permitted to travel to Switzerland where he underwent surgery. He is expected to return to the University to teach in Fall 1998.

(Sources of information on this case include a personal friend of Mr. Subuh, the Middle East Studies Association of North America, the Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizen's Rights, and Amnesty International.)

Relevant International Treaty Articles

The Palestinian authority’s detention and torture of Mr. Subuh, as well as their infringement on his academic freedom, constitute serious violations of international human rights standards, including those enumerated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). These rights include:

• The rights to life, liberty and security of person (Article 3);
• freedom from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (Article 5);
• freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention (Articles 3 and 9); and
• freedom of expression (Article 19).

Many of the rights and freedoms listed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted without opposition by the by the United Nations General Assembly on 10 December 1948, have passed into international customary law and should therefore be upheld by the Palestinian Authority.

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