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Source: http://www.africasia.com/services/news/newsitem.php?area=mideast&item=080612105947.lj2vz837.php#
A "Black Year" for Palestinian Human Rights
[ AFP] Palestinian Mazen Shahin, 41, says the torture he suffered in a month in Mashtal prison in Gaza as a prisoner of the Islamist Hamas was worse than the several years he spent in Israeli jails. The Mashtal underground prison is a former PA intelligence center where members of Hamas were themselves locked up and tortured in 1996. In the 12 months since Hamas seized power from Fatah, Shahin says he has been detained six times - and on each occasion he was badly thrashed. He recalled the first time he was picked up "by 50 masked men." He had the soles of his feet beaten with heavy electric cables and his captors shaved his head and beard. "It's been one of the blackest years for human rights in two decades," said Raji Surani, director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights.