Mahmud Jumayel, aged 26, died on 31 July 1996 in Hadassah Hospital, Jerusalem. He had been admitted following severe torture over a three-hour period on 27 July by members of the Naval Police in Jneid Prison, Nablus, West Bank. It is believed he had been hung upside down by the ankles and beaten repeatedly with an electric cable or similar material. He had been arrested on 18 December 1995 with Naser Jum’a who was also reportedly tortured on 27 July. Following Mahmud Jumayel’s death three members of the Naval Police were tried before the State Security Court in Jericho on 3 August and sentenced to between 10 and 15 years’ imprisonment. However, their trial was grossly unfair. Mahmud Jumayel is the seventh person to have apparently died as a result of torture since July 1995 in the Palestinian Authority.
