On Thursday, 28 Kislev, the Jerusalem Magistrates Court unconditionally released the 16-year old minor who had been brutally detained the previous day at his home in the Ramot neighborhood of Jerusalem. In a video clip recorded by the minor’s father, several policemen are seen dragging the minor to the police car. The minor was interrogated on suspicion of interfering with a policeman in the line of duty and assaulting policemen. He was held in remand overnight.

The following morning the minor was brought to the Jerusalem Magistrates Court for a deliberation at which the police requested a five-day remand extension for the purpose of conducting an investigation. At the deliberation Honenu Attorney Moshe Poleski pleaded that the detention was illegal and that the minor should be immediately and unconditionally released.

Judge Havi Toker accepted the opinion of Poleski, ordered the immediate and unconditional release of the minor, and ruled that the police had not been authorized to detain the minor: “With all due respect, there had been no authorization to detain the defendant, and certainly not to detain him without a court order, because there is no suspicion that a crime had been committed or was about to be committed. In any event, the detention was not according to law and for that reason alone the ruling is to release him.”

Honenu Attorney Moshe Poleski: “Unfortunately the police have again violated provisions of the law and brutally detained a minor at his home, unjustifiably and without a detention warrant as required by law. In court it became clear that the detention was not legal, there had been no cause to detain the minor, and certainly not to request his continued remand. The violence in this instance was on the part of the policemen, and not the minor. We hope that the Police Investigation Unit will look into the matter and thoroughly investigate the conduct of the police in the incident.”

Immediately following the detention Honenu filed an urgent complaint with the Israeli Police, which includes testimonies from neighbors and passers-by who witnessed the detention. The testimonies state that at 10:30, three policemen arrived at the minor’s home and asked him to come out: “When he came close to them they charged him without warning, without presenting a detention warrant, without asking him to accompany them to the police car and without him doing a thing.”

Eyewitnesses who were “shocked to the core” describe the policemen as laying the minor down on the ground, handcuffing him and loading him into the police car. The little daughter of one the neighbors started to cry at the sight.

The complaint letter ended with a demand for “investigation of the testimonies which indicate that the detention was not carried out according to regulations. However, beyond that, the detention was violent and unconstrained. I would like to receive clear answers with regard to the unrestrained aggression towards the minor.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)