The Israeli army is to investigate claims by a former Lebanese guerrilla leader, held captive in Israel without trial for almost six years, that he was raped and sodomised by army interrogators.
Mr Mustafa Dirani, a former security chief of the Lebanese Amal militia, was abducted from his home in southern Lebanon by Israeli troops in May 1994, because Israel hoped to use him as a bargaining chip to obtain the release of an air force navigator, Mr Ron Arad, who had been captured by Amal.
In a suit filed yesterday at Tel Aviv District Court, Mr Dirani is seeking six million shekels (almost £1 million) in compensation for his continuing detention, and for the rape and torture to which he says he was subjected during his first month in jail.
The Israeli Supreme Court has recently outlawed the use of torture in the interrogation of detainees, to the anger of some members of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, who argue that the use of "moderate force" is necessary in cases where a detainee may have information about an imminent suicide bombing or other attack.
In Mr Dirani's case, his lawyer, Mr Zvi Rish, said yesterday, even that purported justification could not have applied, "since it had been years" since his client had any contact with Mr Arad, who is still missing.
The Prime Minister's office did not respond to the allegations in the suit. But some opposition deputies called for an investigation, and the army said it would look into the matter.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister, Mr Ehud Barak, and his government defeated a motion of no confidence last night. The motion was tabled by the opposition in protest at the inclusion in the Hebrew literature school syllabus of poems by the Palestinian national poet, Mahmoud Darwish.