An autopsy, where a Palestinian Authority doctor and legal team were present, determined Sunday night that there were no signs of abuse or violence on the body of prisoner Arafat Jaradat, whose death a prison on Saturday set off a day of rage Sunday.
The Institute of Forensic Medicine at Abu Kabir also said there were no signs of disease but that it could not yet determine the cause of death. Israeli officials said he died of a heart attack.
Palestinian Authority Prisoners Ministry lawyer Kameel Sabbagh insisted that Jaradat was tortured by Israeli interrogators. He told the Bethlehem-based Ma’an news agency that at the prisoner’s most recent hearing last Thursday, the prisoner complained of “serious pains in his back and other parts of his body because he was being beaten up and hanged for many long hours while he was being investigated.”
Jaradat’s family said there were signs of blood on his body, which was transferred Sunday night to Hevron for burial on Monday, and the Israeli army is on high alert for a repeat of Sunday’s rock-throwing riots that lightly injured at least two soldiers in the Hevron area and damaged Israeli cars.