Witness testifies on Shin Bet torture

Source: dailysouthtown, 1-12-2006
In a boost to Mohammed Salah`s claims he was forced to make incriminating statements about connections to Hamas, a prosecution witness testified Thursday his own cousin was tortured by agents of "Israel`s" Shin Bet security service.
Salah, of Bridgeview, has insisted he was tortured by Shin Bet agents during interrogation after his arrest at an "Israeli" checkpoint in 1993. Statements obtained by those agents now are being used against him as he stands trial on federal charges he served as an operative of the militant Palestinian group, which is considered a terrorist organization by the U.S. government.
Mohamed Sharbagi, a Georgia mosque leader who secretly pleaded guilty earlier this year to providing financial support to Hamas, appeared at the trial in a deal with prosecutors and with hopes of reduced prison time as well as a spot in the federal witness protection program. He primarily testified about dealings he had more than a decade ago with Salah`s co-defendant in the case, former university professor Abdelhaleem Ashqar, of Virginia.
Ashqar is accused of serving as a communications link between Hamas leaders in the United States and abroad. FBI agents said they discovered an envelope of Hamas-related documents apparently sent in 1995 by Ashqar during a March search of Sharbagi`s Rome, Ga., home.
Attacking Sharbagi`s credibility, defense attorneys noted he lied to the FBI several times when confronted with the alleged Hamas envelope: First he said he`d never seen it, then he said he saw it but didn`t open it, and later he said he read the documents but didn`t remember what they were about. At trial he testified he`d read the papers and remembered the subject matter.
"This is the fourth time you`ve told a different story about this envelope, correct?" Salah defense attorney Michael Deutsch said.
"Correct," Sharbagi said. "You can call it (a) lie, but I call it loss of memory."
Deutsch seized on a remark from Sharbagi, a Palestinian native, that he`d heard stories of harsh torture tactics employed by the Shin Bet. Pressed for details, Shorbagi acknowledged his cousin once had been detained by the secretive agency.
"I don`t remember specifics, but I do know there was some torture," Sharbagi said.
The revelation drew gasps from several of the Salah supporters packing the Chicago courtroom.
Prosecutors -- as well as a pair of Shin Bet agents who testified earlier in the trial -- have denied Salah was tortured and have said he, in fact, was treated better than other detainees because of his U.S. citizenship.
A retired foreign service officer of the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem testified Thursday that when he visited Salah at a Ramallah jail at the end of the two-month interrogation session in 1993, the prisoner complained of minor back pain but didn`t claim he`d been tortured.