JERUSALEM, Jan. 12 (JTA) — Israel’s High Court of Justice has ruled that the Shin Bet domestic security service can continue to apply physical pressure to suspected terrorists until a final ruling on the matter. The interim decision came Sunday as an expanded panel of nine justices was considering petitions filed by several Palestinian prisoners complaining about the interrogation methods. The court is expected to issue its ruling on those petitions in the coming weeks. Last week, an Israeli state official explained to the High Court of Justice the reasoning behind some of the Shin Bet’s interrogation methods. The Shin Bet recently confirmed that it uses methods such as sleep deprivation, loud music and putting a sack on prisoners’ heads during interrogations. The official, speaking on behalf of the Shin Bet, said the sack was used to prevent the prisoners from seeing other detainees. The music was to prevent the detainees from speaking to each other, and the handcuffs were to prevent them from assaulting their interrogators.
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