By Moshe Reinfeld Ha'aretz Supreme Court Correspondent
The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel yesterday urged Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein to intervene in the cases of over 300 Palestinian minors, who have been arrested over the last eight months - many of them allegedly routinely subjected to torture.
According to the committee, testimony from the minors in Tel Mond prison indicates that many have been subjected to violence while in jail, including beating, kicking, curses and threats.
Many have also been interrogated illegally - meaning by ordinary rather than special juvenile investigators, and without a social worker present - and some have even been physically or psychologically tortured, the committee charged.
The committee further alleged that the youths, most aged 14 to 17, are housed together with ordinary adult criminals, which exposes them to physical and sexual abuse from these relatively crime-hardened inmates.
The committee said the complaints heard most often from the youths involved guards depriving them of sleep, tying their hands painfully tight, pouring ice-cold water over their bodies and covering their heads with a sack.