Adalah filed an urgent petition to Israel’s High Court of Justice on Sunday, asking it to order the police and the National Institute of Forensic Medicine to immediately release the body of Imad Sarhan to his family for burial in line with their religious beliefs. The petition says Sarhan died more than a week ago in Gilboa Prison, where he had been held since 2001, and that all requests to the relevant authorities have already been exhausted.
According to the filing, Sarhan’s family demanded the body from the first day after his death, but was never given a clear date for release. Adalah said it repeatedly contacted the police, the Israel Prison Service and other relevant officials seeking transfer of the body, but received no response. The group later spoke with the investigator in the Beit She'an police station, who confirmed there was no criminal suspicion related to Sarhan’s death and no other obstacle to returning the body.
Even so, the forensic institute in Abu Kabir told Adalah that its records still listed a police prohibition on release. The petition argues that keeping the body is severely violating Sarhan’s rights and those of his family, especially the right to dignity and the right to burial according to his and his family’s faith. It notes that the Supreme Court has repeatedly recognized prompt, dignified burial and mourning rites as part of human dignity, and said such rights may only be restricted by law, which is not the case here.
Adalah asked the court for an emergency hearing and an order compelling the authorities to release the body without further delay. The petition also says Sarhan suffered for years from chronic heart and artery disease and high blood pressure, conditions it says worsened because of medical neglect and denial of proper treatment during his imprisonment. After his death, the body was sent to Abu Kabir, no autopsy was performed, and the cause of death was recorded as cardiac arrest.
