"INSULT AFTER INSULT"
AND THIS IS HOW THEY TREAT A SCOTSMAN!
ISRAELIS TRY TO STEAL ALISDAIR SINCLAIR'S HEART
MER - Washington - 20 June:
Israeli prisons are notorious for their brutality and torture. If it
weren't for the fact that the Arab regimes are oftentimes much worse when it comes to
abusing and torturing their own citizens the protests against what Israel does to
Palestinians would be much more vociferous and much more constant.
The Israelis are also exceedingly arrogant and callous. This article
from The Guardian newspaper describes what recently happened to a Scotsman, Alisdair
Sinclair, after being arrested by the Israelis.
ISRAEL ACCUSED OVER CELL DEATH
By David Sharrock in Jerusalem
The brother of a Scotsman who died in suspicious circumstances in an
Israeli jail two months ago yesterday bitterly criticised the authorities for failing to
reveal that they had removed and kept his heart.
Jimmy Sinclair, whose brother, Alisdair, was being held on suspicion
of smuggling drugs when he died, said his family had been dealt "insult after
insult" by Israel.
According to Israeli police, on April 15 Alisdair Sinclair hanged
himself in a cell with his shoelaces after admitting to smuggling ecstasy into the
country. But they have produced no evidence, the family says.
After complex negotiations to have his body repatriated to Scotland
for burial, Mr Sinclair hired a criminal pathologist to re-examine the body.
He discovered that the heart was missing.
Mr Sinclair said that at first the Israelis refused to take him
seriously, and then only grudgingly agreed to send the heart back to Scotland earlier this
month.
Israel's Abu Kabir forensic institute said the organ had been needed
for further examination following an initial autopsy, contradicting a police statement to
the Guardian at the time of the death that no autopsy had been carried out.
"We don't detail what we removed or how until we've completed
the investigation," Yona Tanenbaum, an official at the institute, said.
"This is a misappropriation, if not a theft, and it shows
incredible insensitivity, if not incompetence," Jimmy Sinclair said yesterday.
"I've always regarded the Jews as religious people and I am just shattered that they
can show so little feeling to the most important part of the body. They know it's where
the spirit resides.
"They sent the body home with a box which they said were all
his personal effects. It contained some women's clothes and torn sheets. We never got back
Alisdair's hand-made boots, which he always wore, nor his wallet and passport.
"Now we have the heart, I am having DNA tests conducted to make
sure it really is his heart. We have never received an apology for the anguish this has
caused us."
A spokeswoman at the British embassy in Tel Aviv said diplomats were
"concerned and disturbed" by the incident but regarded the matter as closed. She
said the circumstances of Mr Sinclair's death were still under investigation.
Jimmy Sinclair believes his brother was throttled by his jailers as
a warning to other couriers. ThePublic Committee against Torture in Israel has pointed out
that detainees have their shoelaces removed before being placed in a cell and that several
other people have died in similar circumstances in Israeli prisons.
From: The Guardian, 6/19/98.
