For many years, the question of who would investigate complaints of torture during interrogations by the Shin Bet (Israel’s internal security agency) was debated by the Ministry of Justice, the State Attorney’s Office, and the Shin Bet itself. Committees were appointed, reports were written, recommendations were made – and yet, on the ground torture continued and sometimes ended in death. A letter sent by the Minister of Justice to the Head of the Shin Bet in 1992 sheds light on the longstanding debate over the power to investigate Shin Bet interrogators, even though, as the Minister noted in his letter, torture “is beyond dispute.”

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The Minister of Justice to the Head of the Shin Bet
July 13, 1992