80 Chapter Two Integrity of Legal Procedures in Arrest and Detention The Palestinian Penal Procedural Code was ratified in 2001 to ensure commitment to the standards of fair trial as stipulated in the Basic Law. However, security agencies of the PNA and the de‐facto authority in the Gaza Strip still commit multiple violations. During field visits to prisons and detention centers in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, which in 2010 exceeded a total of 961 visits, ICHR registered hundreds of violations to due process committed at the time of arrest and detention, and during detention. In addition, ICHR received a number of complaints and affidavits depicting a serious surge in lack of commitment on the part of the Palestinian security agencies to the legal procedures guaranteed by the Palestinian Penal Procedural Code. Many detainees stated that their arrest had not followed from criminal conduct per se, but rather were made against the background of exercising their legally guaranteed rights, such as the right to the expression of opinions, the right to political affiliation and other rights. According to some complaints received by ICHR, detainees had not been informed of the nature of the charges against them, while in other cases detainees had not been able to exercise their right to legal representation by an attorney or the right to obtain legal assistance. Furthermore, a number of detainees were held for a long period before being brought before the judiciary, while detention at security agencies was extended for the majority of those detained due to their political affiliations, and this was due a decision by the Chief of the Military Judicial Commission (MJC). The violations to the rights of the detainees and defendants in Palestine, as observed by ICHR throughout 2010, have clearly affected the criminal justice system, as they lacked the basic principles of the rule of law and due process85, 85 The violations of a right to fair legal procedures, according to the matrix of violations monitored by ICHR, include: (A) arbitrary detention: 1‐ without a warrant; 2‐ without indictment; 3‐ false or non‐serious accusation; 4‐ without presentation before a public prosecutor or judge of a magistrate court. 5 ‐ without a trial.); (B) No compensation for arbitrary detention; (C) Detention due to political affiliation; (D) Violation to the right to representation by an attorney or a public lawyer appointed by the court; (E) Violation to the right to visitation by family or lawyer; (F) Violation to the right to medical care at