NEW YORK, Oct. 3 (UPI) -- An international advocacy group Wednesday condemned human rights abuses in the Hamas criminal justice system since Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007.
A 43-page report released by Human Rights Watch, a non-governmental research and advocacy organization based in New York, documents what it calls extensive violations by Hamas security forces, including warrantless arrests, unfair trials and torture.
The report says Hamas has executed at least three people "convicted on the basis of confessions apparently obtained under torture," the statement said.
"After five years of Hamas rule in Gaza, its criminal justice system reeks of injustice, routinely violates detainees' rights and grants impunity to abusing security services. Hamas should stop the kinds of abuses that Egyptians, Syrians and others in the region have risked their lives to bring to an end," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director for Human Rights Watch.
