"[The court] is not unaffected by the inhumane circumstances of her detention in the West Bank," the ruling reads. However, the judge added that he wants the proceedings to focus on the charges leveled against Odeh here, not the circumstances of her trial in Israel.
[A]s a 21-year-old university student, she was arrested from her home in Ramallah in the middle of the night by Israeli soldiers who "beat me without asking me a single question." She was brought to an Israeli jail in Jerusalem where "they beat me with sticks, plastic sticks, and with a metal bar. They beat me on the head and I fainted as a result of these beatings. They woke me up several times by throwing cold water in my face and then started all over again."
In addition to this physical torture, Odeh also faced sexual torture. Her father, a U.S. citizen, was also arrested and beaten, "and once they brought in my father and tried to force him under blows to take off his clothes and have sexual relations with me." Later, interrogators "tore my clothes off me while my hands were still tied behind my back. They threw me to the ground completely naked and the room was full of a dozen or so interrogators and soldiers who looked at me and laughed sarcastically as if they were looking at a comedy or a film. Obviously they started touching my body." In her father’s presence, interrogators threatened to "violate me" and "tried to introduce a stick to break my maidenhead [hymen]." Shackled naked from the ceiling, interrogators "tied my legs, which were spread-eagled, and they started to beat me with their hands and also with cudgels."
Deutsch had filed a motion to exclude evidence from Odeh's trial in Israel because the judicial practices of the military court that tried her violate the U.S. Constitution.
The judge denied the motion, allowing the introduction of evidence from Odeh's 1969 trial in accordance with the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty between the United States and Israel.
Drain's only decision in favor of Odeh was his ruling to bar the prosecution from mentioning terrorism in front of the jury.
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